


Poor Communication Vs. Not Fucking Up

by Lovelyspud



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Blow Jobs, Depression, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Hand Jobs, M/M, Nothing too harsh though, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow Burn, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Tongue Piercings, piercing kink, shklance - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-28
Updated: 2018-09-17
Packaged: 2018-12-07 21:40:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 28,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11632455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lovelyspud/pseuds/Lovelyspud
Summary: Keith's life was picking up speed. He was a college freshman, just found his long-lost childhood friend, and now some asshole was trying to pick a fight with him. All he really wanted was to get through school, maybe win some kick boxing competitions. But now he's found his soulmate and that should make things easier, but he can't really shake the feeling that something is missing and his soulmate agrees. Problems arise and it becomes clear that these poor souls have not been blessed with an efficient ability to express themselves.





	1. Chapter 1: Reunion

It was about a week into classes and Keith had already accepted that college was going to be just like high school. At least, in regards to his social life. It wasn’t like he had high hopes or something, but he figured making a friend would’ve been a nice change. Although to be honest, his social life was _worse_ now than in high school. At least back then he had _a_ friend, now he had none. Which kinda sucked, but whatever. Keith felt content with his independence. And even if he did feel the occasional pang of loneliness, he didn’t let it get in the way of his college experience. Afterall, he had been planning on attending his local community college until Altea College -a _private school_ \- had contacted him with a real nice scholarship. As it turns out, the school’s main sport was kickboxing and was more than happy to welcome Keith on to their competition team. If he had refused, his parents would have never forgave him, he was sure.  

It was Tuesday, his slow day. Keith was still debating whether the break he had between his first class and his second class was large enough to go back to his dorm. He didn’t really want to spend two hours dicking around on campus, but was it worth the walk? Keith had no idea but figured he should get lunch whether he stayed or not.

Keith entered the college-run cafè, hungry for something lighter than what the cafeteria had to offer. It was decent enough with that pop-of-color modern feel to it that most schools tried to emulate.

Table seating and lounge seating, not too crowded -yet- and drinkable coffee. The place felt almost comforting as it allowed him to bring back his routine from high school; Going to the same cafè for lunch every day. It also had the added perk of being an appropriate place to eat by yourself.

Keith moved to get in line, but the moment he caught a glimpse of wide shoulders and undercut, he froze.

It couldn’t be. There's no way he could be- 

“Shiro?”

The man didn’t look his way, the chatting people around him blocking out Keith's voice, but he did turn slightly, and that was definitely Shiro. Oddly, he seemed to have a scar across his nose.

“Takashi!”

This time the man’s gaze landed on Keith, confusion, and surprise written in his wide eyes and knitted brow. He removed himself from the line to approach Keith, eyes locked the entire time and a smile plastered on his face.

“Keith! What, how?” Keith laughed at the larger man’s confusion.

“I could ask you the same thing.” Shiro cleared his throat. Definitely a scar...

“Sorry, I just, are you a student here?”

“Yeah, I'm guessing you are, too?”

“Yeah...” They stood there for a minute; just taking in the reunion as Keith absently played with his tongue peircing. Keith normally had issues with breaks in conversation, but it always felt natural with Shiro. He never felt the need to fill in the silence with meaningless words and could easily be content in that silence. Although, he had a number of questions for the older man and was glad when he spoke up again.

“Oh! let's get food and I'll tell you why I dropped off the face of the earth.” That was definitely reassuring. Keith hadn't really assumed that Shiro had suddenly hated him, or something, after he left for college, but it was definitely hard not to let his insecurities pick away at their friendship.

The two men got food and quickly sat down, eager to catch up.

“Okay, explain. And it better be good because you left an emotionally compromised fifteen old without his rock.” Shiro's chuckle was a little fond and little sad. It brought up memories that Keith immediately pushed back down.

“Yeah, I know.” His hand combed through his hair. “Where to start...” Keith took a bite out of his sandwich and settled in for a long explanation.

“So, like, that summer I graduated, I guess I was kinda in a car accident.” Keith almost choked.

“What?!” Guess that explains the scar...

“I know, I was at that intersection, you know, the weird one, and got t-boned by some guy who ran a red light.”

“Jesus.”

“It was actually pretty bad. The guy was speeding and in some big truck and I was in my little compact car and-”

“Not your clown car!”

“Yeah, she's totaled-”

“But, You looked looked so dorky in that car!”

“Hey, what do you care about more? Me or the car?” Keith laughed.

“Sorry, sorry. Go on.” He took a bite of his sandwich.

“Right, so my car was totaled, nearly flipped. The only thing that saved me was the guy hitting my right side. The doctors said I was extremely lucky.”

“No shit.”

“I was admitted to the hospital with gashes all along here,” he gestured to his upper right arm and shoulder. Keith saw nothing through the t-shirt and flannel. “It was pretty gruesome.”

“You got scars?”

“Oh yeah.

“You gotta show me sometime." Shiro rolled his eyes as he gave a good natured laugh.

“Sure, anyway, I actually had to have surgery because one of the cuts on my arm was so deep that they basically had to reattach it.”

“Dude!”

“The doctor said that there was a big chance of losing it if the nerves and stuff didn't connect or something.”

“What the fuck...”

“When I woke up from surgery, I could barely move my fingers. I still have to do physical therapy, but it's gotten way better.” He lifted his right arm, wiggled his fingers and bent it back and forth. Although, the movement was stiff and stuttered a fair amount.

“Yeah, seems like it.”

“But, that wouldn't've been enough to stop me from seeing my best friend. What did, was my phone getting lost in the crash. I had to get a new one and there wasn't a way to transfer things if I didn't have the old one so I lost your number. I tried looking you up, but because of the adoption thing I couldn't find you, and you don't have any form of social media, and-” Keith face planted the table and let out a long groan.

“And I don't initiate _any_ sort of contact. Are you seriously telling me that we fell out because of my issues with communication?”

“Well...” Shiro winced.

“Oh my god.” Keith lifted his head when he felt Shiro's hand on his shoulder.

“Keith, it's fine. I don't blame you or anything. We found each other anyway.” Keith sighed, hand sliding into his mess of black hair. He pulled at it lightly.

“Yeah, I guess.” Shiro sat back in his seat and offered a friendly smile. It was silent between the two as Keith sulked - _If he had just texted_ \- and Shiro watched as more and more people filed into the building. Keith moved his hand from his hair to his ear and found a stud. He twisted the metal near his catalog.

“So, I normally take my food and meet up with my friends. And they're probably wondering where I am. You wanna come with me?”

“Uh, sure.” Keith had no intentions of letting Shiro out of his sight.

“Wait,” He held out his hand, “Number first.”

“Fair.” Shiro laughed and pulled out his phone.

 

* * *

 

Shiro's friends were located in a study room somewhere in the science building. As Shiro led Keith to the room, Keith could see an older man -probably a professor- poking his head in the glass door. Through the glass, Keith could see bright orange hair and a matching mustache. He shut the door and made to walk in their direction.

“Ah! Mr. Shirogane!” Shiro seemed to physically recoil.

“Coran, please.” The other man, with an other-the-top accent that couldn't be real, just laughed. Seriously, what was that, British? Australian?

“Oh, I'm just getting your goat!” This man was beyond eccentric. It seemed that every word he spoke was accented by gestures that moved his entire body. Keith was mildly afraid of him.

“At any rate, Shiro, make sure you show up to the activities fair tonight!”

“Thanks, Coran, but I probably won't. I just ran into an old friend.”

“Oh? Is this him?” Keith felt himself panic for a moment. He had no idea how to handle this man.

“Yeah, this is Keith. He's a friend from high school and a freshman.” Relief hit him as Keith realized that Shiro was still watching out for him.

“Oh ho! Pleasure to meet you, Keith!”

“You... Too?” Coran laughed and Keith didn't know if he was laughing at his hesitance or... just laughing? He seemed to laugh a lot.

The man ended up walking off after mentioning some assignments, or something. Shiro sighed and glanced at Keith.

“You get used to him.” He said with an apologetic smile.

Within the small study room -that consisted of bench seating and a table- there was a ginger girl who called herself Pidge, for whatever reason. Next to her was the equally strangely named Hunk who dwarfed Pidge entirely. On the other side of the table was Allura who had beautiful white hair and finally, Lance.

Honestly, Lance was perfect. Dark skin contrasting blue eyes, rich brown hair, tall. If Keith had a soulmate, he hoped the guy looked like Lance. Except, he was eyeing Keith weirdly. In the back of his mind, he was partially aware that Shiro was introducing him to the group. But Keith was distracted by his thoughts; by trying to figure this Lance guy out. They had only just been introduced by Shiro and this guy was glaring at him. Who even did that? Did he know Keith? Enough to have an opinion of him so early in the semester? There’s no way he’s pissed someone off that fast. And if he has, well, that is not the type of person Keith wanted to be around. But he was Shiro’s friend, and Shiro was a pretty good judg-

“Do you believe in aliens?” There was a collective groan from the group as Pidge questioned him. Although, Keith was honestly so distracted by having something else to focus on besides Lance's glare -who even _actually_ does that?- that he missed the question.

“What?”

“Aliens, dude. Do you believe we're not alone?” she stared at him, leveling him. Her voice even and calculating. The intensity of it was extremely off-putting.

“Uh, yes?”

“What about Bigfoot? Mothman? Or what about-”

“Pidge, seriously? Do you have to do this?” Hunk cut her off. She pushed at him, -he didn’t move, like, at all- and scowled.

“Yes, Hunk. I ne-"

“Don't mind her. This is her way of judging people.” Hunk interrupted.

“It's for science!”

“It's edgy.” The two fade off into some bickering argument and Keith just feels awkward. Like, watching them go at it was funny, but he's not sure how to react. So he settles with not moving from his standing position and keeping, what he hopes is, an amused look on his face. Shiro sighs.

“Yup, these are my friends. Sorry, Keith. Here, let me get you a chair.” Shiro reached into a small closet and produced a chair. Allura scooted over -forcing Lance to move- and Shiro sat at the bench. Keith positioned his chair at the head of the table but leaning toward Shiro.

The group carried on with no lull in the conversation. Shiro and Allura seemed to fit into parent roles, putting ends to bad ideas before they started. Although, Hunk seemed to switch with Allura as she was easily swayed into poorly thought-through plans. Shiro held his ground, even if he did falter sometimes. Hunk and Pidge talked excitedly about some project before switching to bickering again. Lance would join in with his own opinions and, at some points, brag about himself and/or drop some horrible pun -Keith forced back laughs each time-. Depending on how bad either attempt was, his friends would roll their eyes and ignore him, or berate him in that loving way that friends do. He laughed loudly no matter what.

Keith found him obnoxious. He was attention starved and it rubbed Keith the wrong way. His voice was loud and each quip was punctuated by an ever louder laugh. His whole act forced people to look at him, and Keith kept noticing the way his eyes shifted over to him when he spoke.

He was _not_ seriously showing off right now. What kind of middle school bullshit..? Keith made a point to ignore him. The boy might’ve been pretty, but his mouth made for a harsh reality.

Aside from Lance, Shiro’s friends were pretty cool. They did this thing were they ignored him. Or, rather, ignore that he was new. They didn’t ask about him, but they made it easy for him to join in if he felt inclined. The group stuck together for a good 30 minutes before Hunk and Pidge had to leave for a class. When the next class period rolled around, it was Shiro and Allura’s turn to head to class. Not wanting to be left with just Lance -or any of them, really-, Keith followed the two. He excused himself to the library and ended up playing games on his phone until his next class.

 

* * *

 

His next class was an art class. Specifically, an intro to drawing class. Keith always enjoyed art, although he never really considered pursuing it as anything other than a hobby. He was an avid doodler, not an actual artist.

The studio wasn’t anything special, really. It was a good-sized room with a circle of drawing desk surrounding a wooden platform. The floors were concrete - splattered with paint - and the walls were covered in murals and art from past generations. Keith took a seat that put his back to a wall and pulled out his phone.

It was just as he was cursing his phone’s battery that a familiar face caught his eye. Lance walked in, talking easily to someone Keith didn’t know.

Had he always been in this class? Keith couldn’t recall. They both sat together on the other side of the room and Keith didn’t miss the mean look Lance gave him as he sat. Keith’s face contorted in confusion; he distracted himself with his slowly dying phone. He didn’t understand Lance’s immediate hatred of him. None of the others seemed to mind him and even seemed to enjoy him. Keith reminded himself that Lance was Shiro’s friend and that alone meant that there was something that redeemed Lance. So far, Keith was struggling to figure it out.

The drawing class came easy to Keith. The high school that he had gone to had pretty good art classes so most of the beginner stuff was old news to him. He blew through the exercise and the professor let him leave early. He felt angry eyes on his back as he left.

Done with classes for the day, Keith made his way off campus and to his dorm. The building wasn’t far and was part of a larger complex that housed most of the freshmen. Keith’s room was on the second floor. It wasn’t too bad, Keith felt.The room was originally a double, but he paid extra to not have a roommate. Because of this, he had two beds, -which he pushed together and covered with king-sized bedding- two built in closets, and two built in desks. It also meant he had his own bathroom.

He had tried his best to make it as comfortable as possible, or rather, his _parents_ had insisted on making it as comfortable as possible. Keith didn’t have much of an eye for decorating, but he had a few posters and some of those wall stickers. It wasn’t much, but it helped to remove the clinical feeling of the white walls.

Upon entering, Keith quickly shucked his backpack and flopped down onto his bed. He sighed and scrubbed at his eyes before rolling over and reaching for his charger. The screen brightens when it was plugged in and displayed a message from Shiro

 

> **Shiro**
> 
>   -What dorm did you get?

Keith smiled at his phone, loving having Shiro back in his life after so long. 

 

> **Keith**
> 
> **-** Kaltenecker 3
> 
> **Shiro**
> 
> **-** Cool my apartment is just down the road
> 
>   -Do you wanna get dinner at 5?
> 
> **Keith**
> 
>   -Sure
> 
>   -See you then

Leaving his phone to charge, Keith reached over the bed and grabbed his laptop. He figured he should start good study habits early and resigned to typing up lecture notes.


	2. Chapter 2: He's Not Like This

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith struggles with Lance and seeks help from Shiro.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a shorter chapter, but the next one should be longer.

Keith easily fell into his newly revamped life with Shiro, plus new friends. He had lunch and dinner with everyone, minus some days when schedules were weird. It was really nice as he almost always saw Shiro every day. Often times, they found themselves at each other's places after classes. Especially on days when Keith had practice, then they would just hang out until the time came and Shiro would drive them to the gym. Keith was surprised that Shiro was okay with driving.

_Shiro shrugged, “I kinda don’t have a choice, y’know?” Keith wanted to argue, but if Shiro said he was fine..._

It hit him the first day Shiro offered to drive him; Shiro couldn’t fight anymore. It upset him, knowing how much Shiro had loved it. All of it. Competitions, training, their sparring sessions... That one hurt him. Trying to best Shiro was his main driving force behind improving. He brought it up with Shiro on the drive over that first day.

_“God, Shiro, it must suck.” Keith sighed. Shiro just shook his head._

_“You really think I’d let a bum arm stop me?” He laughed._

_“But-”_

_“I can’t join the team, I can’t do competitions, and I’m two years behind on my degree, but that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped.” Keith stared at him as they pulled into the parking lot of the gym. “Don’t worry. I’ve talked to my PT instructor about it. We’ve worked around it and actually worked PT into my training.” Keith wasn’t afraid of him hurting himself, physically, but he played it like he was.  Shiro didn’t want to talk about._

_“Okay.” He sighed._

Keith got along well with Shiro’s friends, and they slowly became just ‘his friends’ and not ‘Shiro’s friends’. He felt he got along best with Pidge and Hunk, although he was sure he would get along great with Allura, she wasn’t around as much as she was working on her senior project. The awkward thing about making good friends with Pidge and Hunk, was that they were best friends with Lance. So when the three of them got together to play games, it meant Lance was there. Even if Lance had stopped glaring holes into his head when they saw each other; Even if they sometimes got along.

He was infuriating.

No matter what, it was a competition. Mario Kart? He picked Rainbow Road and purposefully hung back when Keith was in the lead so he could be the one to blue-shell him. Halo? Spawn-killed Keith the entire game. Left 4 Dead? Picked the highest difficulty and played innocent when he shotgunned Keith's back. He had managed to turn Army of Two, _a game built around the idea of working together_ , into a competition! Hunk made them play it in hopes of them working out their issues for the greater good. Keith now believed that Lance didn’t care about the greater good.

It was after a particularly intense playthrough of Rayman: Legends that Keith found himself texting Shiro and asking to come over. Shiro, of course, welcomed him with no hesitation. It didn’t take long for him to make it to his apartment.

“Hey, you okay?” Shiro asked as he let Keith into his small studio apartment. Keith cursed his inability to hide his anger.

“Why are you friends with Lance?” He asked, exasperation dripping from his voice.

“What?” Shiro took a seat on his bed as Keith started pacing.

“He’s an absolute asshole and I’ve been trying to figure out what redeems him; what makes you keep him around.”

“Keith?”

“Do you pity him? Is it because you’re friends with the others and he just comes packaged with them? ‘Cause it sure as hell ain't his personality, tell you that!”

“Keith.”

“I don’t even know if he has a personality! Pretty sure it’s just ‘show-off’ and ‘unnecessary competition’!”

“Keeeeeith.”

“I mean, sure he’s pretty, but at what cost? Not to mention you’re not the type to-”

“Keith!!”

“What?!” It went quite and Keith went red. Realizing he’d snapped, but not being level headed enough to apologize.

“Come’re.” Shiro said as he motioned to himself. Keith obliged and climbed onto the bed.

“Lay down.” He pulled a pillow into his lap and patted it. Keith rolled his eyes but did as he was told anyway. Shiro started carding his fingers through the younger’s hair and Keith was transported to a time before Shiro had left. He had forgotten how much being with Shiro like this helped him. Keith relaxed into the familiarity, and took solace in, once again having someone he trusted completely.

“Tell me what happened.” Shiro’s voice broke the silence. Keith thought for a moment, sucking on the metal ball in his mouth. He released a breath that ruffled his bangs.

“So, we’re playing Rayman, and Lance insists that he be Murphy, and I’m like, ‘Maybe Hunk should be Murphy’, because, you know, whoever controls Murphy, controls progress.”

“Mm.”

“But Lance insists and I’m like, ‘fine, whatever’ and you know what happens?”

“Hm?”

“Lance starts screwing me over! Almost immediately starts pulling blocks out from under me, never giving me the coins, cutting ropes, like, it’s taking him more effort to kill me because he’s avoiding the others! Like, what the hell!?”

“So I call him out on it! And he’s acting innocent! Like the other’s can’t clearly see that he’s fucking with me! So I’m like, ‘Dude, it’s obvious’ and he gets pissy. Says that _I’m_ bad at the game, and I kinda snap. I know I did, but, _God_ Shiro! He’s just so _infuriating_!”

“I tell him that he’s the one that’s bad because otherwise, he’d be actually _playing_ the game and not just being the role you assign to your five-year-old cousin!” Keith lets his hands fall to cover his face; rubbing at his eyes.

“I don’t really remember exactly what happened after that. We started yelling at each other, and I think Hunk tried to stop us, but I think Pidge stopped him. I didn’t stay long, though; Left pretty soon after we started yelling.” Keith scrubbed at his face like he was trying to wash away the memory and sighed.

“I just, don’t see why you’re friends with him. Or why Hunk and Pidge are. I just don’t get it.” Shiro hums as Keith looks up at him. His eyes are closed and Keith thinks he looks sagely.

 

“So, Lance isn’t normally like this.” Keith gave him a doubtful look that Shiro chuckled at.

“I know, but he really isn’t. Lance is actually really kind and caring. He cares deeply for his friends and for strangers. He was late to class the first week because he was helping the guy at the café move stuff from the delivery truck.”

“Huh.” Keith blinked and his eyebrows drew close as he processed this. It didn’t make any sense. Why would Lance be such a dick to him then?

“I don’t really know why he’s acting like this towards you. He’s perfectly normal any time you’re not around. I mean, don’t get me wrong, Lance can be annoying, but that’s when he knows he’s annoying.  Like, it’s intentional. A joke. This is different.” Shiro leaned his head against the wall while twirling a piece of Keith’s hair.

“I wonder what’s wrong with him.” He says quietly. His concern brings Keith out of his own problems. Lance isn’t like this and it’s got Shiro worried. Maybe some of the fighting is Keith’s fault. Maybe he could try harder.

“I...I’ll try to be nicer.” Keith sighed, “I know I come off as aggressive sometimes, maybe I’m unintentionally making him defensive.”

“Hmm,” Shiro hummed in thought, “Maybe... I don't know, Keith. You've been fairly docile.” Keith grunted in agreement. He was trying hard, dammit.

“You haven't punched anyone outside of practice.... As far as I know at least.” Shiro chuckled at Keith's glare.

“...I’ll punch you...” Shiro scoffed even as he continued to play with Keith's hair.

“I'm sorry, what was that? You're gonna punch a _disabled_ man? Wow, Keith-” Keith threw a punch to Shiro's good arm awkwardly from his laying position.

“You're hardly disabled.”

“Hey! I can't pick up a fork reliably with my right hand!” Keith shrugged.

“You were always ambidextrous anyway.” Shiro gaped incredulously at him; hand over his heart to show how truly offended he was. Keith sat up and faced the other man. Shiro smacked him with a pillow and laughed when Keith flailed his way to the ground.

“You’re twelve!” Keith shouted from the floor, calves still hooked over the bed. “Whoever's said you’re ‘mature for your age’ was lying!” Shiro just dropped the pillow on his face with a smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm thinking of doing art for some scenes in each chapter or something.
> 
> Check out my tumblr for my art, commission info, patreon, and my original stories: http://spud-of-love.tumblr.com/
> 
> Thanks for your support!! Criticism is always welcome!


	3. Chapter 3: Overwhelmed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance steps out for air and Keith fallows on impulse.

Allura is a liar. Do not trust her. She comes off as the “mom” friend with her well meaning, rich kidness. Never bragging about how her dad is paying for her college or how she won't have debt. Nooooo, she's nice and considerate and likes to play dirty at Mario kart. Do not trust her. It is a facade.

It started off innocent. With Allura inviting everyone over one Saturday to make up for not being able to hang out. They decided to play games and ended up on Mario Kart at some point. With himself against Allura, Keith quickly found out that Allura will do anything to keep her title as number one.

Keith fell with a thump from the couch - Allura now in his previous spot-, controller still grasped tightly, and eyes never breaking contact with the TV. He’s vaguely aware of laughter coming from around him, but he’s too focused on not letting Allura win to really hear it. He refused to let the cheater win. Shiro’s voice comes through the laughter, but it might as well be a mumble.

“Keiiiith! Hey, Keith!” Two feet came down on his shoulders and started shaking him.

He smiled.

“Nooooo... No! Keith- you fuck! No!”

He grinned wickedly as he overtook Allura’s car and passed her at the last moment. Keith flew up, knocking Allura's feet off him and sending her back into the couch as he threw his hands up in victory.

“Yes!”

“You cheated!” She pointed accusingly at Keith.

“ _You_ cheated.” Keith pulled himself back onto the couch.

“The daughter of a judge does not cheat.” She handed her controller to Hunk as Keith traded off with Pidge.

“You pushed me off the couch!” He said in mock exasperation.

“I was shifting. Not my fault you're pushed over so easily.”

“Ohmygod” Keith laughed and sank back into the couch. Coming down from his ‘high’, he watched as the new players set up.

_“Rainbow road!”_

_“Damnit Pidge!”_

He was really starting to feel like here belonged with these guys. Who knew that five weeks into his freshman year of college he would’ve completely turned his social life around? It was amazing! He hadn’t even got into any fights since he got here which would’ve floored his high school teachers. Actually, he was getting along great with most of his classmates, except Lance of course. Well, he’d also found Lance to be less insufferable. Keith didn’t know if it was because he was trying harder, or if it Hunk and Pidge talked to him after the last time they went at it.

Wait, where _was_ Lance? He sat up, realizing that he hadn't been insulted in a while, and looked to the chair Lance had been sitting in.

“Where's Lance?” He asked to no one in particular.

“He went outside,” Hunk responded, his attention split between Keith and the game. “Shit Pidge- I was going to check on him -stop that- after this game. Give him time to work through his head.”

“Oh...” Keith sat back, not really understanding. He wanted to go after him. _He_ didn't like to be alone when he was upset so there's no way Lance does. Not only that, but he was _trying_ to be friendly, and friends help friends, right?

Keith didn't get far enough in his thoughts to consider that Hunk probably new better than he did before he jumped over the back of the couch.

He made his way through the kitchen to the small porch attached to it. He figured Lance would rather be here than the front stoop and when he slid the door open, he found himself right.

There was Lance, sitting on the ground against the sliding door, bent forward slightly to allow the sliding door to move. He was on his phone, playing a game, and didn't look up.

“I'm okay, hunk.” He said.

“'s not Hunk.” Keith slid the door shut and Lance's looked up. He was visibly confused and stared blankly up at him as Keith sat beside him.

“You okay?” Lance looked back at his phone, turning it in his hand and fiddling with the case.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” He popped his thumb into the corner of his case, tracing the phone’s edge. “Why are you here? Where’s Hunk?” His voice was soft and unsure as he popped the corner back into place and started flipping the phone.

“Hunk’s up against Pidge. I figured you wouldn’t want to be alone.” Seeing Lance fiddling with his phone made Keith very aware of his hands. He picked up a stray piece of mulch to fill the need.

“I was wondering why Hunk came so soon...” Thoughts of regret were slowly slipping into his head now that he stopped moving. Maybe he shouldn't have come.

“This happen a lot?” Keith didn’t know what to do in this situation, now that he thought about it. He picked a sliver off the mulch chunk as he started to process his own thoughts.

Lance stopped fidgeting and sighed as he laid his head against the glass.

“This specifically? Eh, kinda, but not really.” He lolled his head to the side and looked at Keith, a small, fond smile on his face. “Hunk’s just kinda good with people and their feelings.” His head fell back into place and he started picking at his phone case again.

“What’s _is_ ‘this specifically’? Keith asked quietly, feeling like he shouldn’t ask, but curiosity had gotten the best of him. It was weird, seeing Lance all vulnerable like this. Like he was stripped of his hubris.

“Tired.” Keith glanced up in time to see Lance close his eyes. His face contorted into confusion regardless of whether the other man could see.

“Just... Tired?”

“And overwhelmed, I guess.” Lance pulled the case off his phone and opted to stare at it in favor of eye contact.

“What does that mean?” Lance sighed at the question, clearly just wanting Hunk. Keith felt a little bad, he’d never thought Lance could be so... sober? It was making him a little uncomfortable.

“Like, too many voices, too many things to focus on.” Keith winced.

“Oh,” And he was yelling and rough housing...

“Yup...”

“Sorry.” He tossed the wood chunk into the flower bed.

“‘S’not your fault.” It kinda is, though...

“Okay, but-I mean- you probably wanted Hunk for this.”

“Well, yeah. Hunk knows exactly what to do when I tell him I'm overwhelmed.” Lance smiled and chuckled. That’s a bit better, less unfamiliar.

“Yeah...” Keith scoffed. “You want a hug, or something?” Lance laughed.

“No thanks, that would make it worse.”

“Fair.” They fell silent. The only noise between them being the sound of Lance fiddling with his phone. “So, what does Hunk do?” Keith asked finally.

“Just, kinda, talks me through it? Like, asks me when and what set me off. Then just distracts me and talks until I’m ready to go back in.”

“How’d I do?” Lance laughed.

“You’re fine, dude. It’s just weird that you’re the one who showed up.”

“I’m impulsive, I know. Shiro tried his best to teach me to think before acting, but nothing helped.”

“I’d like to see that.” Lance smiled, Keith groaned.

“You ever hear him say ‘Patience lends focus’ or some shit?” He glanced at Lance, “Literally 90% of the advice he gives me ends with that shit. Horrible.” Lance smiled fondly.

“Yeah, that’s how Hunk is to me. Like an all-knowing older brother.” Keith froze and hesitated for a split second. He gave off a nervous laugh.

“Yeah.” Lance’s eyes went wide.

“Yeah?” He asked, Keith didn’t like his tone  and leaned away from him.

“Yeah...” Lance leaned closer, wolfish grin plastered on his face.

“Yeeaah?” Keith scooted away.

“Yeah, the fuck you getting at?”

Lance had turned himself to completely face keith at this point. Keith glared through his slowly flushing face. He cursed his pale skin.

“Oh, I don’t know... What _am_ I getting at? How about you tell me?” Keith pushed himself against the railing as far from Lance as he could get on the small, fenced porch.

“I don't have anything to tell you”

“You sure? Nothing about Shiro or how you don’t see him as an older brother?” Keith stood with his face completely red.

“I’m going back in. Don’t freak out, or whatever.” In highschool, the things Lance had asked about were grounds for a fight. He was holding back. A lot.

“Keiiith!” Lance whined as he grabbed Keith’s wrist. “C’moooon, I told you about my Issuesss! Tell me about your crush on Shirooo!” Keith yanked his hand away, opened the door, and stormed away, leaving Lance with more information than Keith was comfortable with. Lance was lucky Keith was in control enough to just walk away.

Keith walked into the living room, red faced and angry. He grabbed his jacket.

“I’m going to head home. Tired.” He didn’t wait for any replies and headed straight for the front door just as Lance opened the back. Keith closed the door behind him as Shiro called out a confused, “W-Wait, Keith!”

The sliding door clicked in place and eyes turned to lance for answers.

“Um...” Was all he could say to the confused stares.

“Lance? What happened?” Shiro asked as he dislodged himself from the couch and cuddle pile that had formed. He wanted to to know if he needed to run after Keith.

“I don’t know. One second he was fine, then he wasn’t.” Lance crossed his arms as he walked towards the group.

“What do you mean?” Shiro started moving to the door.

“I don’t know, man. I guess I got too personal with the emo-child.” He shrugged, “ I asked a question then he got pissy and ran.”

“What did you ask?” Shiro ran through the list of things you don’t ask Keith in his head.

  * His parents
  * The adoption thing
  * Family in general
  * His mental health
  * His sexuality/ His soulmark
  * A number of other small things that wouldn’t seem like a big deal to someone like Lance.



“I... I don’t think he’d want me to say?” Shiro cursed under his breath and headed for the door.

“Sorry guys. I need to go after him.” And with that, he left.

 ...

Shiro found that Keith hadn’t gotten far from Allura’s apartment. He saw him turn the street corner and ran up to him. It didn’t take long for him to catch up to Keith and called out for him.

Keith! Slow Down!” Keith flinched at Shiro’s voice. He had expected him to come after him, but he really hoped he didn’t. He slowed down despite his overwhelming urge to run. Shiro breathed out heavy, more of a sigh than a gasp for breath and matched Keith’s pace.

“Thanks.”

“Mh.” Keith kept his eyes forward and a scowl on his face. He wished he wore a hoodie.

“You wanna tell me what happened?”

“Nope.” Keith set a brisk pace and cursed Shiro’s longer legs as he kept up with little issue. He saw Shiro run a hand through his hair out the corner of his eye.

“Keith, c’mon, Lance said that you wouldn’t want him to say what happened.” Really? At least he has some moral ground. Keith stayed silent.

“Keith, I don’t want you to keep in your head like this.” They stopped at a crosswalk and keith reached out to push the crossing button but did not speak.

“I know what happens when you do and it’s not good.” Keith tugged his jacket tighter around himself, crossed before Shiro and ignored him.

“Do I have to start listing things?” Keith finally spoke but kept his glare forward.

“I’m not that easy to read.” Shiro scoffed.

“Yeah? Then it won't be a problem.” Keith narrowed his eyes before him. Shiro sighed.

“Fine,” He sounded exasperated as he spoke.

“Did he bring up your family?” Keith refused to let his face convey anything.

“No? The adoption thing, then?” Keith’s eyes narrowed without his permission, Shiro sighed again,

“Sorry, I just need to cover everything.” he paused before continuing.

“Okay... Your sexuality? Did he ask if you were gay or about your soulmark or something?” Keith became very aware of his body. Shiro picked up on it.

“Okay, so something to do with you being gay...” Keith cursed under his breath.

“Wait, he didn’t ask you out did he?”

“No? Shiro, what the hell?”

“Did _you_ ask _him_ out?”

“God no!”

“Did you tell him you were gay?”

“No, Shiro.”

“I don’t think Lance is homophobic...”

“Shiro...”

“I’m actually pretty sure he’s bi.”

“Oh my god, Shiro.”

“What? I don’t think he’s closeted.” Keith stopped and Shiro nearly kept going.

“Look, Shiro,” he made eye contact for the first time since they met up.

“Lance just asked some personal things and I freaked out.” He dropped his eyes.

“I just don’t want to get into it, okay?” Shiro stared confused before his eyes widened.

“Oh my God, it’s me.” Keith sighed heavily and seemed to double his pace from before. Shiro caught up quickly.

“It _has_ to be me. Why else would you not tell me. You always tell me everything _unless_ it’s me.” Keith grunted.

“I dunno Shiro, why wouldn’t I want to tell someone who left me for dead.” He didn’t believe that. He didn’t know why he said it. Shiro visibly recoiled, his face wincing and his voice softened.

“Keith, I know you don’t see it that way. You would’ve ignored me if that was true.” Keith didn’t respond. He could see his dorm down the road and Shiro allowed some silence as the grew closer to the building.

“Did Lance say something about me?”

“No, Shiro, it’s not about you.” He pulled his keys out of his pocket and approached the dorm.

“But it is! I know it’s about me, Keith!” He wanted to shut the door in his face. The older man followed him in.

“It’s not, Shiro.” He started to climb the stairs to his floor and was thankful he was only on the second floor.

“...Oh shit... Is this about your old feelings for me?” They reached Keith's floor and Keith lost it.

“Really, Shiro?!” He stopped suddenly, Shiro nearly running into him. “I’m not a kid anymore!” Angrily, he opened his door and stood in the doorway, glaring at Shiro.

“How about you get over yourself?! I don’t have some long-standing crush on you. Could you stop hanging that over my head, I’d _really_ appreciate it.” He shut the door and locked it, then stalked to his bed and collapsed. He didn’t realize until later that Shiro never said anything about the crush being continuous, only that keith _had_ one.

 


	4. Chapter 4: Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro and Keith have a talk and Keith struggles with life.

When Keith awoke the next morning, his laptop was still open on his bed and still playing YouTube videos from the same playlist he had passed out watching. He stopped the current video, grabbed his phone from off the keyboard and rolled over. The lock screen displayed messages from two chats, a private chat with Shiro and the group chat. Not wanting to deal with either after just waking up -and after what happened last night- Keith opted to catch up with his games. He wasted an hour of his Sunday morning like that before convincing himself that he would legitimately do nothing if he didn’t shower and that even if he ended up still being a depressed bedbug, he would be less of one if did this. He found himself loathing verticality and ended up not washing his hair so he could return to bed faster.

When he finally returned to his bed -after putting on his comfiest clothes- he stared up at the ceiling. Keith knew that he had to check the messages on his phone, and he knew that none of the messages were going to be bad, no one was going to be mad at him for leaving and Shiro was probably apologizing, but he still felt a pang of anxiety. He grabbed his phone before he could talk himself out of it and opened his messenger. Thoughts of looking at the group chat gave him less anxiety so he opened that to find messages from Lance, Pidge, and a message sent from Allura, but signed from Hunk. Also a set of messages from later that night.

 

_-Group Chat-_

**Lance**

-hey i’m sorry that i pushed you like that

**Pidge**

-Yeah, lance is a dick. Dont let him get to you.

**Lance**

-right here pidgen

**Pidge**

->:p

**Lance**

-keith i just want u to know she emojied that /and/ physically did it

**Allura**

-Ignore them. What they’re trying to say is: Keith, buddy, we hope you’re ok -Hunk

**Allura**

\-   -Also Allura c:

...

**Shiro**

-keiths home safe

**Hunk**

-Thank god -legit everyone

 

Keith couldn’t help the small smile that made its way to his face. It was nice to know he’s friends cared about him even when he blew up. He figured he should respond.

 

_-Group Chat-_

**Keith**

-Hey guys

-yeah I’m okay

-Sorry I ran out like that...

 

He left the chat to look at Shiro’s messages.

 

_-Shiro-_

    **Shiro**

   -Keith im sorry

   -You’re right. You’re not a kid anymore and I shouldn’t be on your case about everything

   -Guess I’m just not used to you being an adult

   -Anyway text me back so I can take you to get froyo or something to make this up to you

 

Keith sighed. Shiro was too nice for his own good.

 

   _-Shiro-_

    **Keith**

   -hey

   -Sorry I blew up like that

   -/i/ should be the one buying makeup sweets

 

Seeing as it appeared that he was going to be going out despite himself, Keith willed himself out of bed and to his dresser. He started pulling out drawers as he slowly realized he hadn’t done laundry in about a week and a half and his clean clothes supply was low. His phone buzzed as he was contemplating his jeans from last night. They were just black. He could have any number of black jeans.

   

    _-Shiro-_

    **Shiro**

   -No

   -You were upset and I didnt stop

   -I am paying for your froyo Keith

    **Keith**

   - fine

   -but im paying for yours

    **Shiro**

   -deal

   -now?

   -wait

   -Have you eaten anything?

 

Shit. He hadn’t. Shiro knew him too well.

 

   _-Shiro-_

    **Keith**

   -noooooo

    **Shiro**

   -KEITH!

   -You were going to get me to give you ice cream as your first meal

    **Keith**

   -froyo

   -it’s healthier

    **Shiro**

   -Sure if you get plain flavor and fruit

   -But no one does that Keith

   -No froyo for breakfast

   -I’m taking you somewhere you can get an actual breakfast

    **Keith**

   -fiiiiiiine

   -but i’m only paying for froyo

    **Shiro**

   -thats fine

   -I’ll pay for your breakfast

    **Keith**

   -...

   -see you in 10

 

Keith sat his phone down and decided that the pants would be fine. But shirts...

* * *

 

Keith was a minute late getting out his dorm to meet Shiro’s car. The car threw him off; Shiro preferred to walk if at all possible. He approached the driver's window with a questioning look.

“Car?” He asked as he leaned over to look at his friend.

“Yup. This is a car.” Shiro smiled at his own joke. Keith ignored it.

“We’re not walking? How far are you taking me for breakfast?” Shiro shrugged.

“I get joint flare ups on the impact side sometimes. And I figured you wouldn’t want to walk today anyway.” Keith hummed and made his way to the passenger seat. Keith hadn’t really considered before that the accident hurt other parts of Shiro’s body. Of course, he knew but he never really thought about it. They started driving off when another thought occurred to him.

Wait. 

Shiro had mentioned before that he always needed to prepare his body before exerting it. And there was no way he had been able to last night before running after Keith. Was the pain his fault? Probably. Keith sucked on the metal ball in his mouth, the tip of his tongue poking out as he did. He sighed as he released it. He really needed to make this up to Shiro.

“Hey, Shiro?” Keith found interest in his hoodie sleeves and didn’t look at the older man as he addressed him.

“Hm?”

“About... Last night...” He could hear Shiro sigh.

“Look, Keith, it’s fine. You don’t-”

“No, I want to tell you.” Keith looked up at the driver, a hard look in his eyes. He needed to do this, Shiro deserved to hear this. After what he forced him to do... Shiro glanced back and shook his head.

“...Okay.”

“Last night, Lance... He somehow figured out about my...” Keith bit his lip, this wasn’t going to be entirely true... “About my old crush on you. And it freaked me out like it did back then.”

“Keith, really, it’s okay.” The car pulled into a parking lot in front of a small cafe.

“I know...” Keith sighed his eyes on his jeans. He picked at what appeared to be dried tomato sauce from last night. “And I don’t hold disappearing against you. You couldn’t help that.” Shiro laughed as he cut the engine.

“I never thought you did.” His smile was reassuring and Keith found himself smiling even with his low mood. “C’mon, let’s eat.” And with that, they both got out.

Keith got pancakes, a tall stack covered in chocolate chips, syrup, and whipped cream. Shiro had sighed when it arrived along side his own apple spinach salad.

“Keith, the point of me taking you to get breakfast was that you didn’t start your day with candy.” Keith just grinned and stuffed his face with pancake. 

Afterward, Shiro refused to get him froyo.

Eventually, they made their way back to Shiro’s apartment with Keith pouting about not getting extra sweets and not getting to pay Shiro back. Shiro said he could make it up by watching movies with him. Keith accepted the agreement.

* * *

 

The next day of classes hit Keith hard. It was as if spending time with Shiro only prolonged his inevitable depressive episode. He forced himself out of bed anyway only because he had a test. Today was a joggers and hoodie day, which paired wonderfully with extra unwashed hair because there was no way he was sacrificing sleep time for a shower. He left with his hair barely brushed, (stuffed in a beanie to hide how greasy the roots were) and an unmovable look of disdain for the waking world.

The test was in his first class of the day, astronomy. Childhood nights spend with hand-me-down textbooks prepared him for this; the knowledge he had poured over when he was nine had never left him and he figured he probably did pretty good. He couldn’t really remember exactly what was on the test, but it was probably fine. Probably.

Keith debated going to his next class but when he found himself getting angry at people standing in the hall, not even blocking his or anyone’s way, he figured that he should chill out. Making his way to the study room he normally ate at with everybody, Keith checked his phone. There was a message on his lock screen from someone saying that they were in the room. Keith didn’t bother checking who sent it.

* * *

 

The person who sent it turned out to be Lance. Keith sighed and cursed himself as Lance noticed his presence behind the glass in the door. The brown boy gave a small wave with his brows drawn up in confusion. Keith figured he couldn’t run, especially considering the last time he saw Lance was when he ran out. So he entered, fell into the bench seat across from Lance and dropped his head into his arms on the table.

“Uh... You okay?” Lance asked.

“Nope.”

“Cool.” There was silence and Keith couldn’t tell if he was grateful for it or if he was waiting for Lance to ask what was wrong.

“Um...” Here it comes, “You know, no one’s upset with you, right?” Or not. Or, kinda? Keith decided to count it as concern. A dumb concern, though.

“I’m here, ain’t I?”

“Well, I guess.” Again, silence. “Did something else happen?”

“No.”

“So, just, general depression?”

“Yup.” Shit, he didn’t mean to say that. Lance’s questions were starting to sound like Shiro’s and he auto responded. He curled tighter into himself, an arm wrapping around his head and a finger brushing the industrial in his ear. He started fiddling with the bar. “I’m fine, Lance.” He amended.

“I don’t want to overstep my bounds again, but you just said that you’re not fine.”

“I’m fine.” Lance scoffed.

“Uh, but you’re not.”

“Lance, shut up.”

“Keith, you can’t just tell me you’re depressed and then act like you’re not?”

“I didn’t mean to say it.”

“What? Look, Keith, I’m your friend, or I’m trying to be. You’re making this harder than it needs to be.”

“So are you,” Keith muttered. Lance groaned.

“Alright, fine, you win. I’ll just be quiet.” Keith could hear some shuffling and peaked out of his arms to see Lance propped against the wall, phone in hand.

“Thanks.”

Keith wasn’t entirely sure, but he thought he might’ve fallen asleep like that. At some point, a poke to his head pulled him out of his stupor/nap. He raised his head, wincing at the sudden light, and looked at Lance.

“Hey, sorry, have you eaten?” Keith shook his head. “Let’s get food, okay?” Keith shook his head again and dropped it back into his arms. “Keith, you need to eat.” Keith didn’t respond. “Either you eat now, or Shiro and Hunk force you when they get here. Keith groaned and lifted his head.

“Fine.” Lance smiled.

The pair walked in silence across campus to the cafe. Keith got coffee and as many Uncrustables as his meal plan allowed him to get (2). He sipped his coffee as he waited for Lance to get his sandwich. With coffee in his system, he was becoming less hazy. He considered what Shiro had said before about Lance.

“Lance is actually really kind and caring. He cares deeply for his friends and for strangers.”

He supposed he could see that. Lance seemed to consider him a friend, or at least someone he wanted to be friendly with. Keith watched as Lance flirted with the barista who was making his drink. Bent over the pickup counter, long lashes fluttering. He thought that he heard her mention having a soulmate and Lance immediately switched gears to saying how they’re lucky to have found each other so soon. It didn’t take long for Keith to zone out once Lance started gushing about soulmates or some shit. Lance finally got his food and left with Keith back to the room. The walk back was just as silent as the walk over.

The rest of the group slowly joined them and normality was restored as conversations come and go between friends. He found it a bit odd that none of his other friends ask about how he was feeling. He figured out why when he checked his phone and found a deleted message from Lance in the group chat. Lance never deleted messages, always putting his screw ups on display. A thought occurred to him that Lance might’ve warned the others that he was in a mood and to not bring it up. It was a nice alternative to the intrusive thought that kept telling him they didn’t care.

Shiro was somehow able to convince him to go to his art class, at least. Afterward, Keith hurried to his room, skipped dinner much to Shiro’s disdain and promptly crashed into his bed. Shiro, let in by Hunk and Lance, eventually stopped by with food from dinner.

_“Please eat this at some point tonight, okay?” He told Keith with a sympathetic, yet firm, smile._

_“Okay.”_

Keith did not end up eating that night. He never even figured out what was brought to him before he passed out in front of his laptop much like the night before.

  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! The support for this has been wonderful! @o@ I promise I read comments, I'm just horrible at responding to things ;u; I didn't think I would even get anything for a fanfic like this considering it's just a college AU with soulmark elements I'm just casually writing, so thank you to everyone who's left comments and kudos c:


	5. Chapter 5: Freaked

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith and Lance find out some important stuff about each other and Shiro gives Keith a talkin' to

It took another day for Keith's depression levels to return to normal. After that, the days passed as usual. Halloween was coming up in a week and Lance and Hunk were planning a small party. Lance promised it would just be the group so Keith was pretty excited about it. Even Lance's teasing about him being a stereotypical emo kid couldn't kill his excitement. In the meantime, he had an art project to worry about.

  
It wasn't much, he just had to sketch boxes, but it had to be done in the studio. So that's where he was. He was done with classes, didn't have practice, and had the studio to himself. He enjoyed the silence of it, not feeling the need to fill it with music or something. It was probably fifteen minutes into sketching when the studio's door opened and ruined his solitude. Keith glanced up in time to see Lance walk in.

  
Lance greeted him with a smile, a nod, and a small wave. Keith raised his pencil in greeting. Moments later, Lance's voice broke Keith's focus.

  
“You okay if I put on some music?” He asked. Keith shrugged not really wanting music but understanding Lance’s need for it.

  
“Yeah, sure.” Not too long after, a poppy number filled the room. Keith looked over to where Lance was and raised an eyebrow. Lance just beamed a smile back and gave a little shimmy. Shaking his head, Keith went back to work.

 

Keith finished first and as he stood to clean up and leave, Lance stopped him and asked him to wait. He said something about not wanting to walk back to the dorms by himself. Keith was honestly just happy Lance was treating him better so he figured he might as well and played on his phone until Lance was done. Once he was, they both left together.

  
The outside air was a stark difference to that of the studio. While Keith found the studio pleasantly warm, Lance seemed to be dying and refused to put on his jacket. Even when Keith warned him it was cold. When they exited the building, Lance lifted his shirt and waved it out. Keith shook his head at the dramatic display.

  
“Jesus, it's hot in there! How are you not dead!?” Keith was about to shrug him off but then Lance lifted his shirt to his face and Keith froze. Lance had exposed his chest and in doing so, his soul mark. It was a blotch that looked like a browner and rounder Australia with a large blotch and a smaller one below it settled on the left half of his ribs.

  
“Lance, what was that?” Keith’s voice was panicked as he rapidly tried to recall the image he had just been flashed.

  
“What? I said that you-”

  
“ _NO_! No. Your _shirt_! _Under_ your shirt! What is _that_?!” Lance’s eyes flew wide as he scrambled to lift his shirt again.

  
“FUCK! _Ohmygod_! WHAT IS IT!?” Lance was completely screeching by the time he got his shirt up. Frantically, he flapped out his shirt; airing it out and scrubbing his skin to remove whatever parasite had attached itself to him. And Keith saw it. It was unmistakable. His heart simultaneously stopped, sped up and dropped. Lance, right under the left side of his rib cage, had his soulmark. Keith’s soulmark. He groaned loudly.

  
“Lance!” Keith performed his own scramble to get his shirt up.

  
“Whoa, Keith! Shit! Is it on you now!?” Lance took a step towards Keith and froze. His eyes had followed Keith’s gestures and landed on the soulmark. He dropped his shirt.  
“Oh my God.”

  
“ _Right_!?”

  
“Keith, you fuck.” Keith grimaced.

  
“Look, it’s not my f-”

  
“No, you fucking,” He smacked face and rubbed at his eyes in exhaustion. “I thought I had a fucking _bug_ on me!”

  
“What?”

  
“I thought I was going to die! Holy shit!” Lance let out a huge breath and relief instantly washed over him.

  
“Lance- What’re- We- Lance, we’re _soulmates_!” Keith was speaking through gritted teeth, still gesturing wildly to his soulmark. This was infuriating. How did he not see this as anything but a big deal?

  
“Yeah, but, hey, you’re not a wasp or some shit.”

  
“Lance! Be more shocked by this!”

  
“I mean, surprising? Sure, but shocking?” Lance shrugged. Keith stared, fire in his eyes. “They’re called soulmates for a reason. Means we’re bound to find them at some point. It’s not shocking when they end up being someone you’re already friends with.” He laughed, “What? Did you expect sparks? Instant attraction? C’mon Keith. Life isn’t like it-” At some point during Lance’s speech, Keith had dropped his shirt, walked up to his soulmate and looked him in the eyes with intensity. In a moment, Keith sized him up and gripped his shirt collar.

  
Lance’s face flushed red.

  
“K-Keith?” Keith toed the ground.

  
“Mm....”

“Wha-” The last thing Lance saw before his world started spinning was Keith stepping forward, twisting, and suddenly he was weightless as Keith flipped him over his back and into the grass. Lance registered a leg in his face before the strain in his arm. His eyes shot open as Keith started yelling.

  
“What the fuck is wrong with you!”

  
“ _Me_!? The fuck is wrong with _you_!” Lance sputtered.

  
“I can’t believe that my soulmate is such an insensitive prick!”

  
“Did you fucking flip me!? What the fuck!?”

  
“-just completely ignored my distress-”

  
“Oh my God, let go of my arm!” Lance started squirming.

  
“NO! Not until you admit you’re a dick!”

  
“Fuck you!” Keith pulled harder.

  
“God! Stop!”

  
“Say you’re a dick!”

  
“I _tease_ you and you fucking put me in an _armlock_!?”

  
“I’m emotionally conflicted!”

  
“You’re a fucking psycho is what you are!”

  
“How would you like to be instantly hated by some guy you’d just met!?”

  
“I don’t hate you!”

  
“Fine! Met a guy and he’s instantly a dick to you!”

  
“I’m jealous of you!”

  
“The fuck are you on about!?”

  
“Shiro talked about you! Talked about how good a fighter you are, your art, everything was praise from him! You sounded _perfect_!”

  
“So you settle on being a dick to me?!”

  
“I didn’t want you to get close!” Keith loosened his grip to basically nothing. Lance slipped out and rolled away. He clutched at his wrought wrist defensively.

  
“Why?”

  
“Damn, dude...”

  
“Why!?”

  
“Shit,” He looked to the grass, “I... didn’t want you to see how much better you were.” Keith crawled closer.

  
“Lance, what the fuck?”

  
“I don’t know, okay?! It made sense at the time...” Keith watched the way Lance rubbed his arm and guilt flooded him.

  
“ ‘Fucking knew you were trying to impress me...” he muttered.

  
“What?”

  
“Nothing, look, I’m sorry I dropped you like that.” He sighed, “ C’mon, I barely put any strength into it, let’s go get you a coffee or something.” Lance’s eyes widened and when Keith offered a hand to help him up, he just stared at it before actually grabbing hold. Keith could feel Lance letting his body go slack and could see the slight smirk on his face. To compensate, he dug in his heels, lowered, and yanked Lance to his feet; relishing his small scream.

  
“Nice try,” Keith helped Lance keep his balance with a hand on his elbow, “but you’re too skinny for that.” He walked a few steps towards the café before stopping; not hearing Lance follow.

  
“C’mon, I’ll pay.” Keith saw Lance shake his head and run to catch up.

 

* * *

  
“Shiro! Oh my God! _Shiro_!” Keith yelled as he entered the older man’s studio apartment.

  
“Keith? What’s wrong?” Shiro shut the door behind him and looked to Keith who had face planted his bed.

  
“Maft ef mh halmah.” Sighing, Shiro sat beside his friend and rolled him over.

  
“Try again.” Keith stared at him with a scowl.

  
“Lance is my soulmate.”

  
“What?!”

  
“I know!”

  
“Why- How di- What?”

  
“We were walking back to the dorms and he was airing out his shirt because he thinks the studio is hot and I saw his soulmark and it was mine and I was like ‘oh my god’ but he’s a dumbass and starts freaking out because he thinks there’s a bug on him and when I showed him my mark he was all ‘whatever’ so I flipped him and put him in an armlock and-”

  
“Whoa, what?”

  
“I know! He acted like it didn’t matter!”

  
“No, Keith, you _flipped_ him?”

  
“In the grass! He was being a _jackass_!”

  
“You find out he’s your soulmate and you put him in an armlock-”

  
“Shiro! He’s a fucking _dick_!”

  
“I mean, sure, but an armlock?”

  
“I was emotionally comp-”

  
“Keith.”

  
“I already apologized...”

  
Shiro sighed and patted Keith on the head.

  
“Where’s Lance?” Keith had rolled over again.

 

“In his room, I guess. I bought him coffee.” Shiro laughed.

  
“So, you found out Lance is your soulmate, he didn’t freak out like you were, so you attacked him and then bought him coffee.”

  
“That’s not what happened.” Came his muffled reply.

  
“That’s is exactly what happened.” Keith groaned and rolled over again. He chucked the pillow at Shiro’s head, but he easily batted it away as he laughed.

  
“He probably hates me...” Keith rubbed at his face.

  
“I don’t think so.” Shiro moved them both so that Keith’s head rested in his lap.  
“Lance always talks about how he doesn’t like seeing soulmates giving up on each other.”

  
“That was before he knew it was me.”

  
“An armlock is hardly the worst thing to happen to soulmates.” He shrugged. “Unconventional, sure, but not the worst.”

  
“...Maybe...”

  
“I think you should go talk to him.”

  
“Uh, no Shiro, I can’t.”

  
“Why?”

  
“I just- Shiro, I can’t! I attacked him and apologized with coffee!” Shiro sighed and jumped slightly when his phone vibrated on the side table. Keith grabbed it and handed it to Shiro who looked at the text.

  
“It’s Hunk.” Shiro took to ignoring Keith in favor of responding.

  
“Ugg, probably because Lance told him to tell you to tell me that the whole soulmate thing isn’t going to work out. He wants to never see me again and to tell me he actually hates coffee and that I have to pay for his medical bills an-”

  
“Hunk says that Lance thought you being able to flip him was hot.”

  
“...” Keith’s face remained blank save for slightly widened eyes and a slowly growing red flush.  
“And that Lance is scared that he fucked up.”

  
“WHAT!” Keith lurched forward, nearly nailing Shiro in the chin with his head in the process. He grabbed the phone from Shiro who offered little protest.

- **Hunk** :  
Hey Shiro you got Keith?  
- **Shiro** :  
Yeah. Guess you have lance and know what happened?  
- **Hunk** :  
Ooooh yeah. Lance is freaking out that he fudged everything.  
- **Shiro** :  
Keiths the same. Thinks he ruined everything with the armlock thing.  
- **Hunk**  
Ha! No, Lance thinks it's hot that he was able to flip him

“Holy shit...”


	6. Chapter 6: Take it Slow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith panics. Again.

Keith wasn't sure how he got to Lance’s room, but that’s where he was, knocking on his door and kinda hoping Lance wouldn’t answer. But Lance was not the type to ignore someone at his door and so Lance, unfortunately, let him in and had him sit on his bed. Keith could see the coffee cup from earlier in the trash by his desk. In a mild fit of relapsed edge, Keith related to the cup.

  
“Hunk’s with Pidge, by the way,” Lance told him.   
“Oh, okay,” That meant they would be alone for a while.  
“I think they had a project or something,” Or for a very long while. Lance sat in the desk chair, picked up a stray pen and started messing with the cap.  
“So, uh...” Keith began, unsure of what he really needed to say. “Shiro told me that I should talk to you and I guess that’s what I’m here for,” Lance sighed, Keith refused to make eye contact.   
“Keith, it’s fine. I’m not mad. It’s actually pretty funny now, so don’t worry about it,” Keith raked his hand down his face and let out a hard sigh.  
“Listen, Lance, I’m gonna give you a freebie,” _How to Deal with Keith Kogane: A Step by Step Guide_.  
“O...Kay?”  
“I’m bad at expressing myself and knowing when to tell people that something is wrong. So, when I want to tell you something, just let me say it,” He paused, “Please?” Even if it was because he felt like he owed someone that explanation. Even if it wasn’t _technically_ a healthy way of talking about his problems. He still needed to say it.  
“Um... Okay... What is it?”   
Keith breathed deep in preparation,“I... Don’t know if Shiro’s told you, but I’m adopted,”  
“Oh-” Lance jumped a little. Keith wasn’t really sure why.  
“And I remember my parents,”  
“Oh!”   
“They were soulmates and they loved each other very much,” Keith hesitated a moment, thinking of the way he always remembered his birth parents; Cuddled up on the couch, TV on but too absorbed in their own conversation to pay it any mind.   
“I know they did,” he continued, “But they were blind to everything. They were co-dependent in the worst way,”. He remembered how they justified each other’s addictions and how they prioritized their relationship over their child’s well-being.  
“How? I mean, you don’t-”  
“No, it’s fine,” if he stopped talking now, who knows when this would come out, “I was taken from them when I was three, so I’ve had time to get over it,” Keith paused, wondering if he ever really got over it, or if he just feels like he should’ve by now. He forced the thought out of his head and continued.  
“They were druggies. I don’t know what they did, but they did a lot,” he remembered smoky rooms and plastic bottles, “My mom ended up O.D.ing and my father was forced to call the hospital to save her. When the ambulance got to the house, they found me and for two years I was in ‘temporary’ foster care and then I was just in foster care.” He remembered courtrooms and the face of a too nice Children Services agent.  
“Are they..?” Lance hesitantly moved from his chair to beside Keith, fiddle pen long forgotten. His face was drawn up in concern. Keith momentarily wished he didn’t tell Lance. The guy seemed to be actively feeling Keith’s pain.   
“As far as I know, they’re still alive,”   
“Shit... Keith. I think... I think I understand why you freaked out now.”  
“I... Yeah...” And then Lance was hugging him and then everything was too much. He could feel Lance wrap around him, pull him in tight. There was no hesitance, he just did it. Keith panicked, he didn’t know what to do, how to react. Not even Shiro, just, straight up hugged him. Thoughts raced through his head. About how sad it was the he was reacting to a hug like this. How Lance’s life must’ve been so different from his if Lance was so comfortable with physical contact. He stood, forcing Lance to let him go, then ran out of the room muttering,“Sorry, I gotta go,”.

Keith all but ran to his room and once there it didn’t take long for him to face plant into his bed. It also didn’t take long for Keith to text Shiro and tell him that he fucked up. Shiro responded by coming over despite Keith’s protests. Shiro was over in a matter of minutes and walked in to see Keith laying on his bed. He groaned and rolled to his stomach feeling a sense of deja vu.  
“How’d it go?” Keith could feel Shiro sit as the mattress shifted.  
“I told him about myself...”  
“Oh?” Keith lifted his head and stared hard into Shiro’s eyes. “Wait, you mean- Like, all about-”  
“Yes Shiro, all about it,” Keith face planted back down.  
“Oh my God. Keith, so, he knows?” Keith flopped back over violently.  
“He knows!”   
“How did he react?”  
“What?” He shoved his hands upward. “To knowing that his destiny is with a literal anime protagonist?!”  
“I wouldn’t...”  
“Shiro, that’s exactly what it is!” Keith’s arms dropped heavily to his sides.  
“Whatever, what did he do?”  
“He hugged me!”  
“What?”  
“I know!”  
“No, this is great! Why are you acting like this is terrible?”  
“Because, Shiro, I froze and ran away like a little bitch!”  
“Keith!” Keith groaned and shoved a pillow into his own face. “Keith, why?”  
“I panicked!”  
“Stop doing that!”  
“I’m sorry!!”

Shiro ended up sleeping on Keith’s floor that night as he refused to leave when Keith was so inconsolable. He had Keith text Lance and tell him that he was okay. Lance seemed to understand and apologized for crossing a boundary. Keith apologized for running. Shiro stopped them before anyone apologized again.   
The next morning, Keith felt pretty okay. He initially attributed it to Shiro driving him to class so he could sleep in a bit, but as he thought about it, he realized it was Lance. Or rather, knowing that Lance was his soulmate. He wasn’t bubbly or like he was walking on air, but more like a weight had been lifted. He hadn’t really considered how much knowing his soulmate would affect him. But, he guessed, he put a lot of pressure on himself about the whole thing. Knowing that it was someone who was sympathetic to his situation, even with the rocky start, was nice.

  
Lunch was a little awkward. Neither he nor Lance seemed to know how to act around each other after what happened. He hadn’t considered that he might act differently around Lance after that, but apparently, Lance had been worrying about it.

  
The moment Keith walked into their little cubbyhole, Lance stiffened. It was a weird shift. He felt like Lance had gone from trying to get his attention to avoiding it. He didn’t make eye contact and flushed each time Keith tried to force it. He might’ve found it cute if it wasn’t for how frustrating it was.   
Throughout his classes, he couldn’t stop his mind from filling his head with bullshit. And he knew it was bullshit, but bits still got to him.

  
Like, maybe Lance was embarrassed to be his soulmate, supplied Depression and Anxiety. Now, wait, said Rational Thought, Lance had hugged him and assured him he hadn’t fucked up. Yeah, but one can do a lot of thinking in a night. Which then led to what Lance thought of him which he tried to reason that Lance thought he was hot, but Keith thought Lance was attractive and then was promptly pissed at him so what does that say about that and needless to say, Keith didn’t get much done in his last two classes.   
After his last class, the stress of not knowing was over-riding his anxiety about the whole thing, so he set out to find Lance. He decided texting Lance to ask where he was would be far more effective than just trying to find the guy.

-Lance-  
Keith  
-We need to talk

He immediately backspaced and started again.

-Lance-  
Keith  
-I wanna talk about lun

Backspace, backspace.

-Lance-  
Keith  
-Wanna hang out?

He hit send before he could think too much about it. Not too long after, Lance got back to him.

-Lance-  
Lance  
-uh sure  
-where r u?

Keith  
-Outside the science building  
-Front door

Lance  
-meet me at the coffee shop?

Keith  
-Alright. Be right there

Keith traversed campus fairly quickly and found Lance sitting at a table by himself. There were a few groups sitting around the café who were caught up in their own conversations. None really took notice of his entrance. He greeted Lance as he approached and took a seat opposite him. The other man turned off his phone and offered a weak smile in return. Taking a deep breath to try and banish the irrational thoughts from earlier, Keith decided to just be out with it.

“Are you okay?” He asked. Lance looked shocked.  
“I... Yes? W-why?”  
“You’ve been avoiding me,” Keith pointed out.  
“Keith, we don’t see each other today except for lunch,” Lance was feigning confusion. If there was one thing Keith knew about Lance by now, it was that he was a horrible liar. His smile never reached his eyes when he lied.   
“I meant at lunch,” Keith couldn’t help the irritated sting the words held.  
“Uh, I _was_ at lunch?”   
“Lance,”  
“Keith, I really don’t know what-”  
“You refused to look at me and didn’t talk to me at all,” Lance focused hard on his phone.  
“Sorry.” Was all Lance could say. Keith sighed, irritated. At who? He wasn’t sure.  
“Lance, this isn’t going to work out if you can’t even look at me.”  
“I just... don’t know what you expect out of me.”  
“What?” Once again, Lance managed to make zero sense to Keith.  
“Like, I don’t know. Do you even _want_ to be coupley or whatever?” Lance was muttering and Keith was reminded of the sheepish Lance on Allura’s porch.   
“Weren’t you the one who said that it’s not like how it is in the movies?” Lance chuckled a little at Keith’s attempt at lightening the mood.  
“Yeah, but, like... Something has to change, right?”  
“Not if you don’t want it to,” Lance gave him a confused look. Some of the first eye contact they’ve had all day. “Lance, we only recently stopped glaring at each other. We can’t just, dive into a relationship,” He poked the hand that Lance was using to fiddle with his phone. “It’ll be fine. Just treat me how you’ve always treated me,” Lance nodded.  
“Yeah, that sounds better than what I was doing,” He smiled, “So, what now?” Keith sat back in his chair.  
“Well, I’ve got practice in about fifteen minutes so I need to go pretty soon.”  
“Oh, cool.”   
Keith looked at Lance, saw his disappointment. Despite what he said, Lance wanted something to change, Keith knew this. He wouldn’t have acted weird otherwise. Keith supposed he could compromise, even if he wasn’t ready to fall face first into a soulmate relationship.  
“You wanna come?” Lance’s eyes went wide and he shook his head.  
“No, that’s fine, I’ll just get in the way or something,”  
“Nah, Shiro’s gonna be there so you can hang out with him,” Keith smirked as he stood, “He might even teach you how to get out of an armlock,”   
Lance scoffed.  
“Uh, excuse you!” He stood, swinging his bag over his shoulder, “I am perfectly able to get out of an armlock! I just didn’t expect you to do it s’all,”  
“Uh-huh,” Keith walked his way to the door with Lance following after him, whining that he was being talked down to and that Keith had no idea what he was capable of. Keith resisted laughing.

  
Barely.

  
  
  


  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again for kudos and comments! I love and appreciate each and every one of them! Even just screaming.


	7. Chapter 7: Halloween

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time for Halloween!

Keith looked at himself in the mirror and would’ve smiled if the latex allowed for such facial movement. He looked absolutely disgusting. Most of his face was a mixture of cotton balls and liquid latex at this point and the texture he worked so hard to achieve looked on par with actual Freddy Krueger. He was proud of it. After giving the latex a good powder down, he started giving depth to each crater on his face with shades of red and black body paint.

  
Once he finished detailing, he considered if he wanted the burns to look fresh or just leave them in their slightly matte state. He figured this whole thing was probably only going to last an hour or two before he got tired of having it on his face. There was also the issue of eating. Keith tested the elasticity of the latex. Yeah, there was no way he was getting anything bigger than a fun size Snickers in his mouth with this on. He looked down at his box of FX makeup and considered the cheap lube that sat within. Did he really want to be covered in _and smell like_ shit lube all night? He decided to forgo adding another layer of bad smell. The latex already stunk enough. He dropped the lube in his bag just in case he changed his mind later, along with his latex, blood, and spirit gum. For emergencies.

  
Checking his phone, he saw that Shiro was heading over to take him to Allura’s. Keith checked his hair, having decided against the bald cap and instead opting for bobby pins and a hair tie, and gently put on his hat, gloves, and claws. And then immediately removed the claws because he couldn’t lock his door with them on.

  
Keith found Shiro waiting for him outside his building covered in green paint and a tattered suit they had found at Goodwill. Shiro had wanted to be Dracula because he thought the white bit of his hair would work well with the costume. Keith was able to convince him that Frankenstein's Monster would work better with his hair _and_ build. He was missing the staples and bolts Keith gave him, he noticed.

  
“Wow, you’ve really gotten better at that,” Shiro praised him and Keith drank it in. He didn’t allow himself to be proud too often, but FX was one of those things that he really took pride in.

  
“I’ve learned that cotton balls work better than toilet paper,” he shrugged. “Where’s the bolts and stuff I gave you?” he asked.  
“I, uh...” Shiro hesitated, “I couldn’t get them to stick,” he admitted.  
“Have you learned nothing?” Keith teased him. Shiro opened his mouth to speak but Keith cut him off, “I brought spirit gum, so I’ll fix you up when we get there,” Shiro nodded and the pair headed off.

  
Allura had pretty easily taken over the party idea once she got wind of it and her apartment was completely decked out. Leave it to her to never go halfway in anything and to buy out an entire pop-up Halloween store. Everywhere you looked there was a skeleton, or a zombie, or a spider web. She had an entire family of those skeleton spiders that didn’t make any sense. She even had an entire shelf of porcelain babies painted black with red eyes. No Pinterest project was spared. The lights were off and in their place was a plethora of string lights, strobe lights, and black lights. The kitchen was where Hunk took over. Behind its half walls held a number of meticulously crafted snacks and drinks _that may have contained alcohol_ that made you feel bad for eating because of the sheer amount of time Hunk must’ve put into making each one. It was amazing. Especially when you consider her house was normally pastel themed.

  
Allura greeted them as a spider queen. Her dress was a pretty standard black dress with lacy spiderwebs, but what really made her stand out was her face. She had painted black eyes all around her own and shaded them to make them look set into her face. It was incredibly creepy.

  
They excused themselves to a better lit bathroom to properly attach Shiro’s prosthetics. Which really didn’t take that long and resulted in Shiro getting scolded and getting poked by plastic claws.  
 _“You tried to put them on over grease paint?”_  
 _“Yeah...”_  
 _“And you didn’t tap the spirit gum!?”_  
 _“I... Yeah...”_

  
When they remerged, they found Pidge had arrived and Hunk had finally left the kitchen. Hunk was in a Chewbacca onesie complete with face paint. Shiro told him he looked cute and Keith agreed. Pidge on the other hand... Keith didn’t know what she was. She wore a paper mache pill shape over her body that was covered in black fur. Attached to her back and her arms was a sheer fabric that she had painted to look like... Moth wings... Maybe? Her face peeked out from under a hood with eyes and teeth. She looked like a less friendly version of the little kid from Monster’s Inc.

  
“So what’re you? A furry?” Keith asked. Pidge looked appalled.  
“I’m Mothman!” She exclaimed. Her eyes glared out from under pointed teeth.  
“Ah...” Was all Keith could really manage. “Where’s Lance?”  
“He’s with Allura,” Hunk answered as Pidge pouted, “She’s helping him match eyes,”  
Keith tried to make sense of that, but failed,“What?”   
“They’re like, spider twins, or something,” Hunk clarified.  
A voice rang out from behind them, “Uh, Allura is my spider queen, I’m just her prince,” Lance announced.  
“Ohhh, that’s what it was! Sorry, buddy,” Hunk apologized.  
“Don’t worry about it, dude,” Lance was dressed up in a black vest suit with spider-web details that matched wonderfully with Allura’s dress. It fit his body perfectly, nothing too tight or too loose. However, it was his face that really took the show. Keith didn’t know anything about actual make-up, but he did know that it took skill to do what Lance had on his face. It was overall dark, his cheekbones were accented, his lips had a gradient from black to burgundy, and the eyeliner, or whatever it was, really showed off his blue eyes. And just like Allura, he had black eyes dotting his face.

He was incredibly pretty.

And creepy.

It was perfect.

The thought fluttered through his head _this is my soulmate_ and he forced it down. He didn’t really know why he felt like he had to but he did. Maybe he wasn’t _really_ ready to accept that the soulmate thing was actually happening. Maybe he wasn’t ready to accept that he found his soulmate attractive. Maybe he didn’t know how to transition from kinda friend to soulmate. Whatever it was, Keith swallowed it and refused to show his disdain for the taste.

  
“Your face looks sick, Keith.”  
It took a second for Keith to register that Lance was talking to him.  
“Th-” he cleared his throat, “Thanks,” behind him, Shiro squeezed his shoulder as if he knew Keith’s inner thoughts. He probably did.

  
It didn’t take long for the party to get into full swing. Full swing meaning, of course, Dance Dance Revolution was brought out. Which Lance kicked his ass at while Keith insisted that he was at a disadvantage with his face covered as it was. Lance was quickly beat by Pidge who refused to remove her costume and relied largely on memorization. Lance was never the same after that.

  
While they waited for their turn again, Keith and Lance took a moment to get snacks from the kitchen.

  
“I don’t want to eat them. The time he put into this is unreal,” Keith remarked as he stared wide-eyed at the selection. Lance laughed.  
“He’ll be upset if you don’t,” he supplied.  
“True,” the words took away Keith’s apprehension.  
“Hey, Keith?” Shiro started as he walked into the small room.  
“Hm?” Keith was distracted as he tried to pick out which snack he was going to have. _Spider cookies or eyeball cake pop?_  
“They came off,” Shiro held out his open palm; two bolts. Keith sighed heavily.  
“That’s because you insisted that we didn’t ask Allura for make-up remover.”  
“I didn’t want to bother her!” Shiro defended. Lance snorted from behind his glass of whatever you call that punch with sherbet in it.  
“We’ve barely been here for thirty minutes, I’ll fix it,” Keith turned to Lance, “Can you get the spirit gum from my bag and tell Allura we need makeup wipes? It’s the red, drawstring one next to my claws,” Lance nodded and headed off to the living room. Keith gave Shiro a leveled look to which he responded with a sheepish grin. Keith rolled his eyes; now wasn’t the time to tell him he’s cute. Instead, he ushered him off to the bathroom.

  
Allura appeared in the bathroom as Keith was scrubbing spirit gum residue from Shiro’s neck. She giggled at the situation; Shiro sitting on the toilet as Keith scowled at his reddening skin.

  
“Here, the wipes might work better,” she said as she handed him a wipe and started scrubbing at the other side of Shiro’s neck. After a moment, she laughed, “You turn red so easily!” Shiro rolled his eyes.  
“You should see him when he drinks,” Keith muttered, focused on his task. Shiro stiffened.  
“Keith!” He gasped, scandalized at the implications of the younger’s statement.  
“I mean, we were good teenagers who never engaged in underaged drinking,” Keith deadpanned. Allura laughed so hard she had to stop what she was doing as Hunk appeared in the doorway.  
“Uh, what happened?” He asked.  
“Shiro got twelve-year-old Keith drunk!” Allura answered between laughs, head resting on the sink counter as her body shook.  
“Oh, wow,” Hunk snorted.  
“He was _thirteen_!” Shiro attempted.  
“I got _him_ the vodka!” Keith defended as if that made it any better.  
Hunk hid his face behind the door frame as laughs racked his body and Allura started up another fit. Shiro wished he could touch his face enough to hide behind his hands.  
“I’m gonna give you your bag, but first you gotta tell me where you got vodka at twelve,” Hunk bargained  
“Thirteen!” Shiro corrected, seizing forward slightly and causing Keith to wipe off a streak of green. Keith flicked his cheek as punishment.  
“Alright, thirteen. Explain or no bag.”  
Keith sighed and stopped attacking Shiro’s neck to explain himself. He was sure Shiro was happy for the green covering his face.  
“It’s really not that exciting; I stole it,” he explained simply. Hunk gaped as Allura snorted. Shiro groaned.  
“You _stole_ it? At _twelve_?” Hunk whispered as if the cops were going to take his friend away any second.   
“ _Thirteen_!”  
“Sure, Shiro,” Allura dismissed.  
“What? Like you’ve never stolen anything?” Keith shrugged. Hunk closed his eyes and put his hand on his heart.  
“I was, and am a saint,” he said.  
“I actually believe that. Statement retracted,” Keith agreed.  
“I stole my best friend’s glitter nail polish when I was nine,” Allura admitted.  
“I also believe that.”  
“Anyway, here’s you’re bag,” Hunk handed over the red bag.  
“Thanks. Where’s Lance?” Keith asked as he started digging to find spirit gum.  
Hunk shrugged, “He gave it to me to give to you. Think he’s talking to Pidge,” Keith nodded and produced the tiny bottle of adhesive. “I think she’s setting up Mario Kart so I’ll leave you guys to do,” he gestured to Keith and Shiro, “This.”  
Allura nodded, “I’ll join you, good luck guys,” She stood and followed after Hunk.

  
Once they were out of earshot, Shiro spoke up as Keith started applying the spirit gum to his neck.

  
“You and Lance doing okay?”  
Keith sighed, “Yeah, I think so. Progress is slow, but it’s still progress,” he tapped at the adhesive, observing how it pulled away from his neck in strands. He tried to ignore how close he was to Shiro. To his face. To his neck. No, he most definitely didn’t need to be checking out another man while he talked about his soulmate.   
“That’s good, how ‘bout you? You okay?” Shiro asked. Keith could feel the deep vibrations of Shiro’s voice through the bolt he held to his neck.   
“Yeah, I’m-”  
Shiro gave him a side eye. Keith sighed  
“I think the whole ‘Soulmate’ thing is starting to sink in,” he shifted to the other side of Shiro and started applying the adhesive again, “Like earlier, I thought Lance was pretty in his costume, but,” But he can’t stop thinking about Shiro. Can’t stop _relying_ on Shiro.   
“But?” Shiro pressed.  
“But... But I’ve always found Lance attractive. It... feels different now,” Keith hoped that Shiro would take his hesitance as hesitance for the whole situation. He didn’t seem to notice anything. Keith tapped the spirit gum.  
“I think that’s natural,” Shiro offered.  
“Yeah?”  
“Mm, especially for you two.”  
“Maybe,” Keith pressed the bolt to his neck, falling silent.

 

When the pair finally joined the group, the other four were deep into their race.

  
“Welcome back!” Hunk yelled from the couch as they walked into the living room, “You guys switch with losers next game, sound good?”  
“Alright,” Keith agreed as he took the open seat next to Lance on the loveseat and Shiro sat on the floor next to Pidge’s feet.

  
Allura came in first and Keith was preparing for their inevitable battle. Beside him, Lance stood and handed him the controller. Keith sent him a questioning look. Lance had came in second, he was still in the race.

  
“I gotta pee, so you play,” Lance explained.  
“We can wait for you,” Keith told him.  
“Yeah, it’s not a big deal,” Hunk added. Lance shook his head, a smile that didn’t reach his eyes on his face.  
“It’s fine, don’t worry about it,” he told them. But Keith was worrying about it.  
“Alright, buddy. If you need anything you know what to do,” Hunk said as Pidge acted as a middleman for his controller to Shiro. Lance nodded and headed towards the bathroom.

The game started and Keith couldn’t keep his thoughts off Lance. He wondered if he had done anything to upset him. Nothing came to mind, but that didn’t mean he didn’t do _something_. After the first race, Hunk went to find Lance which only made Keith more concerned. Thoughts raced through his head; trying to make connections. Did Lance have some weird aversion to Mario Kart at Allura’s? It sounded stupid, but maybe it wasn’t to Lance. Maybe it was just how competitive everyone got? But it was all in good fun, right? No one was actually being mean to anyone. But maybe it was that whole getting overwhelmed thing, whatever that was. 

  
He couldn’t think straight. He was in 8th place and the latex on his face was starting to itch.

 

Lance and Hunk returned for the fourth race. Despite the open spot next to him, Lance sat on the floor at Hunk’s feet. So it _was_ Keith? Is that what that meant?

  
Keith came in last and handed off the controller while Lance declined to play again. Keith needed to talk to him. There was no way around it and this behavior, well he thought they were past it. And it was starting to get on his nerves.

  
“Lance,” he called to the man in question. He stiffened but looked up anyway, “Come get some food with me,” Keith knew there was an undercurrent of irritation in his voice, but he had a hard time keeping it in check. Lance hesitated and looked up at Hunk who glanced down and said something Keith couldn’t understand. Lance nodded and rounded the couch to follow.

  
“What’s up,” Lance asked once they were in the kitchen, his voice nervous. Keith leaned against a counter.  
“What’re you doing?” he asked.  
“What do mean?”  
“Lance,” he was definitely aware of the irritation in his voice now, “I would really like to not do this again.”

  
Lance sighed, his eyes suddenly finding the punch bowl very interesting.

  
“I saw what was in your bag,” he said as he rubbed his arm.  
“What?” Lance wasn’t making any sense and the makeup on his face pulled as it tried to keep up with his confused expression. Lance crossed his arms.  
“C’mon man, don’t make me say it,” Lance’s face was going red under his make up and suddenly Keith understood what happened.  
“You found the lube?” the anger he had been feeling was starting to fall away with how ridiculous this was.  
“Ohmygod, yes!” Lance squealed, his face was completely red now. Keith couldn’t help but laugh as his anxiety fled his systems. Lance scowled at him clearly irritated at Keith for laughing at his embarisment.  
“That’s for my face,” he explained. Lance just stared at him, confusion morphed slightly into disgust, “No, listen, it’s a common trick FX artist use to make burns look new,”  
“Are you fucking with me?”  
“Are _you_ fucking with _me_?” Keith countered, “Did you really think I was going to try and fuck you while looking like Freddy Krueger?”  
“Well...” Lance couldn’t help the small smile that broke through his embarrassment.  
Keith laughed harder, “What did you think, I was going to _woo_ you and in the moment be like, ‘hold on, let me take my fuckin’ _face_ off’?”  
“Well, I thought it was weird...” Lance chuckled softly. Keith’s own laughter was starting to taper off.  
“C’mon, let's go back,” Keith suggested. Lance nodded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry this one's taken so long to get out. I was in a creative writing class this semester so that took up all my writing energy. I'd say that this one's longer to make up for that, but really it just ended up like that. I'm not completely happy with one, but we really need to move on, soooo. 
> 
> Next week break starts for me and I'll have a month and a half off so hopefully, I can get something out during that time.
> 
> Love ya'll!


	8. Chapter 8: Video Games

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith and Shiro talk about the past, and Keith invites Lance over to play games.

“Keith!” Shiro suddenly flung himself up in Keith's desk chair, staring wide-eyed at the younger man on his bed. Keith looked up from the laptop nestled on his thighs. It was the Sunday after the party and he was pretty bent on just chilling in his pajamas in his room. Shiro was an added bonus.

“What?” he questioned.

“We didn’t celebrate your birthday!” Shiro looked absolutely wrecked over the issue. Keith shrugged.

“S’not a big deal,” he said as he looked back to his laptop, “Besides, that Halloween party was basically on my birthday.”

“Yeah, I guess...” Shiro muttered to himself, “I could’ve at least remembered.”

“My mom transferred some money and I used it to buy a game. It’s not like I was forgotten. You know I don’t really care much about that kinda stuff anyway.” Which was entirely true. Keith never saw much merit in traditional celebrations. Shiro hummed and went quiet for a moment.

“Have you told her about Lance?” he asked. Keith sighed and leaned his head back against the wall.”

“No,” he admitted.

“Keeeeith.”

“I know, it’s just...” he faded off, eyes closing. Shiro moved from the desk to next to Keith on the bed.

“Telling her makes it real?” Shiro offered.

“Yeah, something like that,” Keith closed his eyes, picturing his parent’s reaction to the news.

“You should probably tell them before break,”Shiro suggested.

“Yeah...” as nice as it would be to see that reaction, they would also be pissed that he waited so long to tell them.

“They treat you okay? You haven’t really talked about them.”

“Sorry, it’s just kinda, not a big deal to me anymore, ya know?” Keith brushed his bangs from his face and looked at Shiro who nodded in understanding, “But yeah, they’re good people. I got taken in by that lesbian couple that actually came back for a second visit,” Keith started.

“I remember them, actually,” Shiro recalled, leaning back against the wall.

“They’re pretty nice and the main reason I’ve mellowed out so much, I think,” he smiled fondly, “I don’t know why they kept me, I got into so many fights freshman year I had to move schools.”

“Jesus Keith,” Shiro’s eyes were wide.

“I mean, I don’t know what you expect. Like, I’m not blaming you, but you leaving left me pretty messed up,” Keith sighed and closed his laptop, seeing that this conversation wasn’t going to end anytime soon.

“Sorry...” Shiro looked away. Keith smacked his arm.

“Did that accident leave you deaf, too? I said I don’t blame you,” Keith teased. Shiro couldn’t help the snicker that left his mouth, “Anyway, they started using positive reinforcement. If I went a month without getting into a fight, I got a game or something. As you can imagine, I was an angel if a game I wanted came out that month, but a shit head for any other month.”

Shiro laughed, “I’ll have to keep that strategy in mind,” he teased.

“Uh, huh...” Keith rolled his eyes.

“So, when did you start kickboxing?” Shiro asked.

“Almost immediately after the first fight. Some guy started fucking with me in front of our apartment and I kicked him in the face. Mama had to split up the fight,” he chuckled, “She was _not_ happy. But she didn’t ask why I fought the guy, she just asked why I knew how to fight like I did.”

 

_“Shiro.”_

_“That older boy that was always around you when we did visits?”_

_“Mm.”_

_“He taught you kickboxing?”_

_“Mm.”_

_“Great, we’ll sign you up for lessons.”_

 

Shiro covered his face, ears red, “I’m still not sure if teaching you was a good idea or not.”

Keith shrugged, “It kept me from getting extremely hurt and helped me fly through lessons.”

“Yeah, but now your moms think I was some irresponsible teenager who got their eventual son in extra trouble,” Shiro rubbed his face.

“Nah, they’re actually pretty thankful about it and wanna meet you,” he pauses, “I don’t think they’re too happy about you piercing my ears, though,” he laughed. Shiro groaned and fell to his side.

“Stupid, how did you even convince me to do that?”

Keith shrugged, “I told you I would do it myself with a safety pin.”

 

_“Want my ears pierced.”_

_“I think you need a guardian for that? I don’t think Ms. Lilian will go for it.”_

_“Can’t be that hard.”_

_“You need a license to do it to people, I think it is!”_

 

“That’s right, you were twelve and a little shit,” Shiro rolled over to his back.

“Does that excuse the fact that four of my ear piercings are from you?” Keith teased.

“Yes, because you still would’ve done all of them by yourself! You only came to me because you didn’t know how to make them even!” Shiro counted, embarrassment still on his face, “Did you at least tell them that I was keeping you from gangrene?”

“I told them that I found you.” Keith avoided.

Shiro laughed, “Glad I’m more important than your soulmate,” Keith rolled his eyes, a small blush coming to his cheeks, “You know, you would probably feel better about the soulmate thing if you spent more time with Lance than me,”

Aversion failed! Keith picked at the hole in jeans, “I spend plenty of time with Lance...”

Shiro raised an eyebrow, “Alone?” Keith blushed and looked away, a frown glued to his face, “Uh huh. How about you invite him over?” Shiro suggested.

“Shiro, no. You’re here.”

“I can leave, it’s not a big deal,” Shiro shrugged.

“What would we even do?”

“You can play that new game you got,”

“It’s one player,”

“Do what we would do at my house and trade-off when you die,”

“Uhhggg... Fine,” Keith caved and pulled up the messenger on his laptop.

 

Lance appeared at his door five minutes after Shiro had left. Those five minutes Keith spent telling himself to clean up but ended up but trying to hide his anxiety in phone solitaire. It wasn’t the first time Lance had been in his room, but it had always been with someone else or for Keith to grab something quick. Not only that, but it was the first time they would be alone together, in a very private setting since he told Lance he was adopted. He felt like his head was buzzing as he opened the door.

...

This was a mistake.

 

Keith had set up his room so that he could play while on the bed. He had pulled the extra desk to his bed to act as a side table and placed his TV and consoles on it. This meant that the two of them were on the bed with Lance in the corner and Keith giving him as much space as possible while also being able to see the screen. However, this meant that he also had a good view of Lance.

 

And that was the mistake.

 

He couldn’t stop staring at him while he played. It didn’t help that he had already beaten the game so he literally had no reason to pay attention to the TV. Instead, his mind went to Lance and his eyes followed. He kept thinking about how pretty Lance looked at the party. How well his suit had fit him and how his eyes looked with all that makeup. He thought about how casual he looked in that moment; just basketball shorts and a t-shirt, hair messy and eyes focused. Every Once in awhile he would lick his lips or chew on his lower lip or, especially if something was particularly challenging, his tongue would peak out just the slightest bit. Keith couldn’t decide if it was adorable or teasing. He decided it was both. It got him thinking about kissing Lance and what that would feel like. If he kissed him in that moment, what would Lance do? Would he resist it? Would it ruin everything? Would it kill this awkward air that Lance no doubt feels too?

“Keith, you okay?” Lance interrupted his thoughts, looking at him with a faint flush to his checks.

“Huh?”

“You keep glaring at me and it’s making me fuck up,” he raised an eyebrow.

“Oh,” shit, “Sorry,” he looked away to the pause menu on the TV; he’d been caught big time.

“It’s... fine?” he sat the controller down and turned to better see the other man. Keith’s mind raced and he couldn’t come up with a reason to calm down, “But for real, are you okay?” Lance asked again.

“Yup, I’m fine.”

“Keith, you can tell me what’s on your mind, alright?” Lance pressed and moved closer. Keith could see the small freckles on his nose that almost blended into his dark skin. His face was so easy to read, held so many expressions. His brows were pulled in confusion and concern, his cheeks slightly darkened in embarrassment, probably from the staring, and as he looked at Keith, he parted his lips and bit down on the flesh. Keith wasn’t completely sure what that one meant; his best guess was nerves. He knew what he wanted it to mean.

“Hey,” Lance grabbed his shoulder, gently shaking him out of his trance, “You’re staring again.”

Keith’s eyes darted to Lance’s; realizing he’d been staring at his lips, “Sorry...” he all but whispered. Keith wasn’t sure when Lance had gotten closer, but there he was; close enough that he could see the golden ring around his pupil in his blue eyes. He couldn’t look away and with the way Lance looked at him, he didn’t think the other man wanted him to.

He leaned forward, testing the waters. For what, he wasn’t entirely sure. He knew he wanted to kiss Lance, but he wasn’t sure... What wasn’t he sure of? Thoughts were starting to leave his head. He could feel Lance’s hand on his shoulder slid down his arm and come to rest on his bicep. Lance’s eyes were lidded, yet somehow gave the impression of being wide open. Keith realized with a sharp breath that Lance’s pupils were blown.

Keith surged forward, hand holding Lance’s face in place. His lips hit the other’s firmly, then softened almost instantly as he melted into the sensation. The hand on Keith’s arm moved to his wrist and Keith could feel Lance lean into him. When they parted, Keith let his eyes linger closed for a moment; almost afraid that the man in front of him would suddenly disappear or reject him. His eyes finally opened and he found himself locking eyes with his soulmate.

“That was... really nice...” Lance breathed, a smile playing at the corner of his lips. Keith couldn’t help the small, breathless laugh that escaped him. What was he worried about?

“Yeah?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

“Well,” he smirked, “Guess I’m glad at least the kiss thing is like the movies,” he teased. Lance shoved his shoulder playfully.

“Stop that, _I’m_ supposed to be the cheesy one!”

“Oh yeah?” Keith’s smirk didn’t leave his face as he slid his hand to Lance’s neck,”I think we can both be pretty cheesy,” he admitted. Lance never got the chance to argue before his lips were smashed against Keith’s. Never softening his hold on the Cuban boy’s neck, Keith locked their lips together and yeah, that felt much better than before. He could feel Lance breath deeply through his nose, then hands on either side of his face, and then he was falling back and, holy shit, Lance was on top of him. They broke for breath and Keith stared up at Lance as if he had just answered all his prayers.

“Have you kissed anyone before?” he asked Lance, breathless and red-faced.

“No, have you?” Lance countered.

“Yeah.”

“Who?” he asked, kissing the corner of Keith’s mouth.

“No one important,”

“Didn’t care about soulmate purity?” he teased. Keith could feel his smirk. Actually _feel_ his smirk against his cheek. _Jesus_.

“I didn’t care about a lot of things when I was younger.”

“You’ll have to tell me about it,” Lance nuzzled his cheek.

“Later,” reaching up and grabbing the other’s face with both hands, Keith pulled their mouths to meet, easily slipping their lips together. He didn’t want to think about the boys he kissed in high school when Lance felt so much better. He sucked the other’s bottom lip into his mouth just slightly, a part of him still scared that Lance would reject him. Lance’s breath hitched and a gasped moan found its way out as Keith dragged his teeth along the captured flesh. Feeling empowered, he sucked more into his mouth and moved to run his tongue over Lance’s lip; the softness of his tongue giving way to the metal ball stuck in the muscle. There was a gasp from Lance and then flailing as he fell off Keith and onto the bed beside him.

“W-what the hell was that?” Lance gasped from beside him. Keith sat up, confusion clearly written on his face.

“What’s what?”

“There was...” Lance stared at Keith’s mouth intently before his eyes lit up with realization, “Is your tongue pierced!?” he shrieked.

Keith stuck out his tongue and used his teeth to push the ball forward, effectively showing it off.

“Shit dude, how long have you had that?”

Keith thought, trying to remember when he had gotten that particular hole, “Since I was... Seventeen?” he was pretty sure it was his mom who had taken him to get it after half a year of no fights. He _had_ mouthed off to a shit ton of people, but his moms had agreed that those didn’t count as fights.

“What? And I never noticed?”

Keith shrugged, “Most people don’t.”

“What,” Lance resumed staring at Keith’s closed mouth, “People don’t notice?”

“It’s one of my less obvious piercings,” he informed.

“What other secrets do you hold?” Lance teased, Keith smirked. Oh, he had no idea.

“Well, I have my septum done and snake bites,” Lance’s eyes went wide at that, “But I don’t wear them except to keep the holes open,” he clarified. Lance leaned in, staring at his lower lip, trying to find the two holes in his face.  “There’re also others,” he realized if Lance hadn’t seen his tongue, there was no way he saw the other piercings. He pulled his hair back.

“What the hell is in your face?” Lance stared at the subdermal embedded in his upper right cheek. He poked it, immediately recoiling at the feeling. Keith laughed, that’s how Shiro reacted, “Is that _in_ your skin!?”

“Yup, and don’t forget the eyebrow,” he gestured to the bar in his right eyebrow; his newest one.

“Uh-huh,” he paused and watched as Keith let his hair fall back into place, effectively obscuring both piercings, “You know, I thought you were going to say your dick was pierced.”

“Heh, haven’t been old enough for that one for very long,” Keith smirked, seeing easily though Lance’s flushed face. He wanted to tease him, ask him if he liked the idea, but...

“Baby steps, Lance,” he resisted every poorly formed thought in his head and reached for the long-abandoned controller, “You’re almost to a boss fight.”

Lance muttered as he took the controller, “I think I already found the boss.”

Keith couldn't help the shit-eating grin that came to his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've had a hard time with college these past few weeks with finding out that I'm behind on credits and having to take classes online outside of my college. But, I know this is sooooo cheesey, the comments I've gotten on this have really helped me feel better. So here's a chapter i've been wanting to write for a long time and managed to type out way faster than usual, kinda like a thank you~


	9. Chapter 9: The Sex Thing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith has an important conversation with both his moms and Lance. Shiro is Keith's comfort object.

“Alright, fine, I’ll do it,” Keith grabbed his phone from the desk and stared down at the blank screen.

  
“It’ll be fine, alright?” Shiro encouraged. Keith nodded and pulled up his mom’s number, set it to speakerphone and anxiously waited for her to pick up. He glanced up at the man across from him on the bed who just gave him a thumbs up.

  
“Hey, honey, what’s up?”

  
“Hey Mom, is Ma there, too?” he asked, holding the phone in front of himself.

  
“Yeah, give me a minute,” there was some rustling and muffled footsteps before another woman’s voice came over the phone.

  
“What happened?” she said as a slapping noise and whispers of don’t assume and stoooop could be heard. Shiro slapped a hand over his mouth to stop his laughter. Keith just sighed.

  
“Nothing’s happened,” he defaulted, then winced as he realized that something had happened, “Well, actually....”

  
“What’d you do?” his ma asked.

  
“I didn’t do anyth- I mean, I did, but- Look, this isn’t how I wanted this to go. Can we start over?” he begged.

  
“Alright honey, tell us what you need to,” his mom’s voice was calming and full of understanding. It did little to soothe his nerves.

  
“I- uh,” he looked up to Shiro who patted Keith’s knee and smiled, “I found my soulmate,” Keith hated how the words sounded, hated how childish it made him feel and hated that saying those words and looking at Shiro somehow hurt. Keith stared intently at his bedspread. Both women collectively gasped, then started talking at once resulting in what could only be described as a verbal keysmash.

  
“Holy shit, Keith-”

  
“Are you dealing with it okay-?”

  
“They treatin’ you right-?”

  
“What are they like-?”

  
“Jesus Christ, stop or I’ll hang up, damn,” Keith interrupted, hand rubbing his face in annoyance. He didn’t have to look at Shiro to know that he had some kind of smile on his face.

  
“Sorry, sorry,” his mom sighed, “Got too excited.”

  
Keith took in a deep breath, “His name is Lance, and yeah, we’re okay.”

  
The rest of the conversation went in a similar fashion with his parents asking questions about the two of them. It was about midway through the Q&A that Keith realized what little information he had on Lance. He knew that Lance was a business major, but he didn’t know why. He knew that he was at least partially Cuban, but he didn’t know how much or how relevant that identity was to his life. He couldn’t even tell his mom where Lance was from, which he was promptly informed that ‘where are you from’ is, like, the first thing you ask someone in college. In the end, they offered him only praise for finally telling them. While it had occurred to him that his parents would be very understanding of his hesitancy due to his own issues with the whole soulmate thing, his anxiety refused to allow that thought any ground. He would try to keep that in mind for the future, but Keith ultimately knew that anxiety almost always won.

  
Keith dropped the phone onto his bed at nearly the same rate that he flopped back into his pillows.

  
“That wasn’t so bad,” Shiro laughed as he slumped against the wall. His long legs nearly as long as the double mattress.

  
“I don’t know anything about Lance.” Keith breathed, the realization washed over him.

  
“Well, that can be easily fixed.”

  
Keith sighed, he knew he could just ask Lance all the questions his parent’s had, but damn. Have you ever seen a dog that could very well just step over something in their way, but for whatever reason they don’t? That’s exactly how Keith felt.

  
“How’s your mom, by the way?” Keith dodged.

  
“Yeah, sure. I’ll accept that transition,” Shiro teased; Keith kicked him.

  
“Shut up. How is she?”

  
“She’s okay, still working hard,” He picked fuzz off the knee of Keith’s pants with a soft smile, “The hospital keeps her busy.”

  
Keith pulled himself to a sitting position, smirk forming, “Do the other nurses still call her ‘Tiny Nurse’?”

  
“Pocket Nurse, and yeah, they do,” the older man chuckled.

  
“It’s true though! I don’t understand how she gave birth to you.”

  
“She didn’t; I was a c-section!” Shiro laughed.

  
Shiro stayed for about an hour after the phone call and succeeded in distracting Keith long enough for him to shove his emotions to the back of his skull. Sure, wasn’t good for him, but he’s survived this far, so...

 

It was like a dam cracking and then bursting open. Keith wasn’t prepared, had no way of being prepared for Lance after The Kiss. It started simple enough, just a few cracks in the concrete. Lance would sit next to him at lunch and lean against him, he would kiss his cheek when they would part for class, he moved his seat in drawing next to Keith’s; simple things. And Keith was okay with it. He easily adjusted to the small, yet prolonged physical contact at lunch and was even fine with the goodbye kisses; even if it did shock him the first time it happened.

_“No good?” Lance asked, hesitance written in his entire being even as he smiled._

  
_“No, it’s... It’s fine, really,” Keith smiled softly as he tried to will Lance’s insecurities away._

  
_“Really?”_

  
_“Yeah.”_

Then he started asking to come over. Again, it started simple, he just wanted to finish the game they had started together and maybe kiss a little if that’s what ended up happening, but you know, whatever happens. Then, once the game was over, Lance asked if he could still come over after classes. It was one of those days that he realized something.

  
They were both on his bed working silently on their laptops -Keith had a paper due before Thanksgiving break- when the thought hit him; he had spent the last week with Lance and he wasn’t burnt out on people. In fact, he was perfectly at ease just having Lance be around him. Which was surprising for him as it was incredibly easy for him to get sick of being with people. He needed his space, yet Lance seemed to be becoming part of his space. The only other person he had ever been able to stand for extended periods of time was Shiro and he was pretty sure that was only because he grew up with the man.

  
“Hey there, Space Boy,” Lance’s voice shook him out his thoughts. He looked up at the other man’s smiling eyes. There was mischief there and Keith wasn’t sure if the feeling in his gut was excitement or anxiety.

  
“What’s up?” Keith asked. Lance just chuckled and shook his head.

  
“Nothing, you just seemed spaced out,” he settled himself in front of Keith’s knees, “You wanna take a break?”

  
Keith thought a moment and considered his paper. It was mostly done and not due for another day. He could afford a break.

  
“Yeah, sure,” he saved his document and set the laptop aside, “What’d you have in mind?”

  
Lance rested his hands on Keith’s knees. He didn’t answer, only smirked as he pushed Keith’s knees apart and moved between them. Keith immediately got the hint a mirrored the look even as their lips met. It was soft, Lance’s kisses were always soft.

The dam broke.

Lance slotted their bodies together, nearly pulling Keith onto his lap as he pushed forward. One hand was set firmly on his shoulder as the other made its way into his hair and Keith realized with a groan that Lance had him pinned. The other didn’t miss the opening, moving his mouth against Keith’s with purpose, tongue running over his bottom lip. It was not a clean kiss, and Keith knew that they probably banged their teeth together more than once, but he felt none of it. The overwhelming sensations had Keith’s head spinning. He gripped the back of Lance’s shirt, feeling the other’s hand tighten in his hair- Slight sting. _Good_ , he decided.

  
Keith gained some confidence and pulled away only to nuzzle into Lance’s neck. Breathing deep, he could smell Lance’s deodorant, Old Spice, he vaguely recognized. He had never especially loved the brand, but suddenly he didn’t want to ever stop smelling it.

  
Lance shuttered at the ghosting of breath and Keith decided that he liked that. That he wanted to hear more of that. He started kissing the length of Lance’s neck, taking notice of how he gasped when Keith’s lips pressed up against his jawline. Lance’s head dropped to his shoulder with a sharp intake of breath as Keith started to lightly dig his teeth into his skin, hands roaming just slightly under his shirt, resting on hips.

  
Something told him that it was a good time to remind Lance that he was the more experienced one here.

  
Hands dropped to ass and Keith jerked him closer in an obvious show of power. Lance gripped Keith’s shoulders tightly as he squirmed in the new position. It was obvious he was affected just by the way his breath hitched.

  
“Do you want me to make you feel good?” he mouthed against Lance’s neck.

  
“Mmm...” Keith could feel Lance’s grip tighten.

  
“I can make you feel good...”

  
Lance whined; he could feel the vibrations of it against his lips.

  
“Tell me what you want...”

  
“I need...”

  
“What do you need?” Keith whispered.

  
“I...”

  
“Hmm?” he hummed against Lance’s throat.

  
 _“Igottago!”_ Lance pushed back slamming Keith against the wall as he scrambled backward. Before Keith could even respond, let alone process what had happened, Lance was gone.

  
“Fuck,” was all he managed before he flopped forward. He did too much, pushed Lance too much, everything was too much. He should’ve known all Lance wanted was to kiss. Keith went too far and now he’s just left with an erection and too much anxiety to do anything about it.

At some point, he texted Shiro to inform him of his new mistake. Keith laid in his bed, eyes focusing and unfocusing on the patterns in the ceiling for who knows how long before a knock spooked him out of his head. Keith knew that he was in no position to tell time, but he was pretty sure that was a new record for Shiro.  
“Come in,” His voice was barely above talking, but it seemed that Shiro heard him anyway; his door opened.

  
“Hey, Keith?”

Not Shiro.

Keith sat up and found Lance standing in his doorway looking very sheepish.

  
“Lance?”

  
“Hi, yeah, so- I shouldn’t’ve done that. Run out, I mean. I guess I got overwhelmed and by the time I got to my door, I calmed down enough to realized that it was stupid of me to run like that.” Lance vomited out as he alternated between looking at the floor and looking at Keith.

  
Keith rolled himself across the two matrices and sat at the edge of his bed. He extended his arms out to Lance.

  
“C’mere.” Lance walked closer and the moment the other was in range, Keith encircled him in his arms. “I thought I messed up,” he admitted.

  
“Oh no, you’re okay,” Lance stroked his head as Keith smashed his face farther into Lance’s stomach. “I think we need to talk about the sex thing.”

  
“Yeah, I think we do.” Keith agreed. Lance tried to pull away, but Keith held tight.

  
“We can’t really talk about it like this.”

  
“Yeah...” reluctantly, Keith released Lance who crawled onto the bed beside him.

  
“So... the sex thing,” Lance started.

  
“Mm, the sex thing...”

  
“I wouldn’t... Mind?”

  
“Well, I think it’s safe to say I wouldn’t either.”

  
Lance hesitated and picked at his cuticles, “Have you... You said you’ve kissed before...”

  
“Have I had sex before?”

  
“I- Yeah.”

  
“Yeah, I have.”

  
“Oh... So...”

  
“I’m clean if that’s what you’re worried about.”

  
“Oh! Yeah, no I-”

  
“My parents forced me to get checked every few months after they found out I was sleeping around.”  
“How was it?”

  
“The testing?”

  
“No, the kissing, the sex. You mentioned it that one time...”

  
“Nothing like kissing you.”

  
“ _Ohmygod_ ,” Lance held his face in his hands and laughed nervously. Keith could see the blush tinting his ears; It was adorable and only reinforced his stance on the kissing thing. He never thought anyone in high school was cute.

  
“I’m serious.”

  
“No way! That’s too cheesy!”

  
“It’s true! I don’t know if it’s because of the soulmate thing or my general mentality, but being with you feels so much better than the guys in high school.”

  
“...So, they were guys?” Lance teased, eyebrow raised impossibly high. How was his face so emotive?

  
“Mostly, sometimes girls.”

  
“Not picky?”

  
“Hey, they were the ones who weren’t picky. I just made it known that I was up for it, everyone else just wanted to know what it was like.”

  
“Oh god, you whore!” Lance laughed and Keith felt a sheet of relief wash over his head. Lance didn’t care. He legitimately didn’t care that he wasn’t Keith’s first. It was just as it left his system that he realized how much that thought affected him.

  
“I kinda was, yeah.”

  
“Have you slept with anyone on campus?”

  
“Nah, I was slowing down midway through sophomore year and haven’t been with anyone since junior year.”

  
“Huh,” Lance went quiet as he thought, “Sooo... What’re you into?” he asked finally.

  
“Huh?”

  
“Like, sex-wise.”

  
“Oh, uh, a lot of things, I guess.”

  
“Anything weird?”

  
“I was burned once on accident when the guy I was with missed the ashtray. Wouldn’t really say I was _into_ it, but we still fucked.”

  
Lance winced, “How does that happen?”

  
“Ashtray was on the nightstand, I was laying next to the nightstand, the guy didn’t have his glasses on...”

  
“So... Does that mean you’re into pain?”

  
“Yeah, kinda, I guess.”

  
“I suppose that makes sense... with all the piercings,” Lance paused and bit his lip as he thought, “I don’t... I don’t know if I’ll be able to... hurt you?”

  
Keith couldn’t help the absolute roar of laughter that bubbled out of him. Lance looked mortified, red blooming through his brown skin.

  
“Oh no! We wouldn’t- Oh god- No, _no_ \- It’s vanilla for you.”

  
“Well, I-”

  
“What’d ya think? That I’d give you a whip and say _spank me, daddy_ the first time we go at it? Oh god-” another round of laughs ripped through his body and Lance couldn’t help but laugh himself at the imagery. Keith was getting the feeling that Lance was great at jumping to conclusions. He couldn't say he was mad; the results were pretty amusing so far.

  
“I guess that’s what I was afraid of, actually. Really silly when you put it that way, though.”

  
“Don’t worry about the sex thing, okay? I’ll walk you through it when it happens.”

  
“Alright...”

  
“If it makes you feel better, you can come up with a safe word.”

  
Lance laughed, a genuine sound, “I think I can come up with something.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh my god guys, I'm so sorry for how long this took! I'm not sure why this was so hard to write, but whatever, here it is~


	10. Chapter 10: Thanksgiving

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone goes home for Thanksgiving break and Keith comes up with a plan.

“We missed you so much!” Keith could barely see through the arms of his moms as they pulled him in tight. He could see Shiro though, leaning against his car, a smile on his face. The bastard was enjoying this.

  
His Mom let go- _finally_ to greet Shiro. She was absolutely tiny next to him, her dark, natural curls giving her maybe an extra inch, and yet he looked like she was going to destroy him.

  
“Mom-”

  
“No, you shush. We’ve waited long enough to meet this guy, don't cha think?” His Ma kept him firmly by her side with a strong arm. She had also enjoyed the kickboxing classes.

  
“You must be Shiro, thank you for driving him back.” His Mom was a psychologist that specialized in unique cases. She was also a very curious person who tended to ask too many questions and not feel bad about it later. Keith made eye contact with Shiro and tried to send him a sympathetic look. He didn’t think it helped Shiro at all.

  
“Oh, it’s no problem! I live in town, so...” Shiro rubbed at his elbow, clearly uncomfortable.

  
“Keith’s told us. Keith’s told us a lot of things, actually.” Her voice was even, not once losing that cheery lit. Keith hid his face in his hands while his Ma snorted beside him.

  
“All good things, I hope?” Shiro barely managed without a stutter.

  
“Well, you kept him from dying, so I’m grateful for that.”

  
“Oh, uh-”

  
“You can call me Naomi and this is my wife, Yvonne. Come on inside, I’m sure you could use a snack!”

  
Keith was forced to sit and watch as Shiro went from being absolutely terrified to being best buddies with his moms. It started with his mom asking about the piercings and Shiro stuttering out that he was _only trying to help_. Upon the realization that it had been _Keith_ that pulled Shiro into the whole thing, his Ma went on a rant about _another_ time Keith withheld information. They bonded extremely quickly after that and Shiro stayed for as long as he could before he got a call from his own mother concerned about where he was.

  
A little while after Shiro left, Keith dismissed himself to his room to get settled in. His teenage room felt slightly weird to him now. Like it was halfway between _his room_ and something else. Keith never thought that he would feel so attached to a room, and yet there he was. He had lived in so many rooms, but this time the room had been his. He had posters of bands that he never really listened to; He had only wanted the posters just because he was actually able to keep them on the wall. One of the walls was full of four years of doodles, all stacked and taped on top one another.

  
His phone dinged beside him and he wiggled around his bed to get it out of his back pocket.

-Lance-  
Lance  
-I think i figured out our safeword

Keith couldn’t help but smile as he read the text.  
-Lance-  
Keith  
-Oh yeah?

Lance  
-Get ready for this...  
-Headlock

Keith snorted audibly

-Lance-  
Keith  
-pfft  
-Seriously?

Lance  
-Yeah!  
-Look its got emotional significance

Keith  
-Okay, sure but /someone/ got turned on by a headlock  
-So i dont know how effective that would be

Lance  
-...  
-FIRST OF ALL  
-I was turned on by the fact that u could even /do/ that  
-Strength! I was turned on by how strong you are!  
-...  
-Secondly  
-I have a back up if ur so against ~headlock~

Keith knew very well that the safeword was likely never going to be used, mostly because he had never actually needed one before. It was always hey, that doesn’t feel right before anyone even got close to using the safeword. But even so, Lance seemed really excited about it and if it made him feel better, then whatever, right?

-Lance-  
Keith  
-Alright what is it?

Lance  
-...  
-Coffee

Keith  
-pfft  
-Yeah, that could work

   
“Oh, Keith! My unofficial son! I never thought I would see you again!” Keith, once again, found himself getting the life hugged out of him. This time by Aiko Shirogane, Shiro’s mom. The woman was short and stockier than the last time Keith saw her. He thought momentary that the weight gain was probably a good thing, seeing as before Keith felt like he would break her when he hugged her. Still, she was absolutely dwarfed by her son. Aiko was second-generation Japanese-American, ex-military and had raised Shiro from birth by herself after an accidental pregnancy. She was a strong woman with an even stronger sense of duty that she passed down to Shiro.

  
“I missed you too,” Keith staggered out. Aiko released his body but kept a firm grip on his hand as she pulled Keith farther into the small house.

  
“Come on in! I hear you’ve found your soulmate, that’s exciting!”

  
“Oh, you’ve heard about that?” Keith side-eyed Shiro who just shrugged.

  
“Of course! I have to admit, I’m a little disappointed.” Aiko sat herself down in an armchair as Keith plopped down onto the familiar couch across from her and next to Shiro.

  
“Why’s that?”

  
“Well, I had always thought that you would be Shiro’s soulmate, Keith.”

  
“Mom!” Shiro jerked forward in his seat as Keith snickered. Now it was time for Shiro to get the mom treatment.

  
“What? You came home with some dirty, little gremlin child. What twelve year old is just suddenly attached at the hip to an aggressive third grader - No offense, Keith.”

  
Keith couldn’t help the snort that broke through, “None taken. I was fairly aggressive.”

  
“Ha!” Shiro laughed, “You tried to fight Kuzco because he wanted to play and you took that as a challenge.”

  
Upon hearing his name, Kuzco, a skinny red-orange Abyssinian, meowed from his perch in the cat tree by the window. He was looking far more calm than Keith remembered.

  
“Alright, extremely aggressive,” Keith admitted with a shrug.

  
Aiko smiled fondly, “You seem far less aggressive now,”

  
“Oh, uh, yeah,” Keith suddenly felt very sheepish, “I haven’t gotten in a fight since... uh...” he rolled the ball in his mouth and pressed it to the back of his teeth. He had gotten it for not fighting and that was, “Seventeenish, I think.”

  
“That’s great news! Those ladies must be miracle workers,” She teased.

  
“Yeah, they’re pretty great.”

 

Keith had found himself celebrating two separate Thanksgivings. His own family’s for dinner, and Aiko’s for lunch. They had previously worked it out this way as Aiko was only serving the three of them, and his moms were cooking for extended family as well. Plus, Aiko had complained of having so many leftovers and no one to eat them. It was definitely a weird experience for Keith. He was just getting used to Thanksgiving in a home that was still pretty new to him and now he had another home that wanted him. It was weird but pleasant.

  
Break passed with little fanfare after that. Keith spent most of his time either at home or with Shiro. Which wasn’t bad, honestly. It allowed them more time to reconnect. Yeah, they were doing that at school, but between classes and Lance, they hadn’t had much time together. Especially because Keith had come to realize that Shiro felt like he was impeding on his time with Lance.

But it was good.

Towards the end of break, Keith found himself laying in bed, watching Youtube, and starting to feel like he was ready to go back. His mind started to wonder and he started to come up with a plan. It was kinda stupid and fairly risky, but he was sure Lance would love it.

* * *

 

It was lunch on the Monday, back from break and no one seemed as rested as they wanted to be. Keith figured that each and every one of them had messed up their sleep schedules. He was having a hard time paying attention, though. Lance was leaning against him, which was causing him to lean slightly against Shiro, which was causing his heart to race. It wasn’t helping that his plan was playing in his head the entire time. Thankfully, no one took his silence as strange and eventually Pidge and Hunk went off to their class. Time passed slowly after that until the group made its final split. As usual, Allura and Shiro went their separate ways and Keith was left with Lance; they made their usual trek to the library.

  
The plan was about to start.

  
“Let’s get a study room.” Step one was to get the last study room. No one used it as it was farthest from the coke machine and the bathrooms. It had a skinny, rectangular window to one side of a windowless door that spanned the front of the room. The room’s position at the end of the library meant that no one would be able to see if something was happening against the door.

  
Lance agreed to the suggestions and followed Keith to the back of the library. Step two was to enter before Lance.

  
Once Lance closed the door behind him, Keith had him cornered. Step three was to get Lance pushed against the door. Which was easy. Keith placed a firm hand on the other’s chest and pushed him back a step with zero resistance. He couldn’t help his smug smile as he realized how much trust Lance had in him.

Step four was to kiss Lance until he was a pretty little mess in his hands.

His lips touched Lance’s cheek softly, far too gentle; a suggestion. “What’s your safeword?” he whispered, breath ghosting over the skin he had just kissed. It was more of a tease than a safety precaution. An indication of things to come.

  
“C-Coffee?”

  
“Good boy.” Keith pulled away and stared at Lance’s wide, blue eyes before kissing him once, twice- Lance grabbed hold of his shirt and pulled him closer. He kept their lips together and Keith reflexively pulled Lance’s bottom lip into his mouth; biting and sucking. Keith released it for a breath only to latch back on to it. This time, running his tongue between their lips; his piercing dragging over Lance’s lip. He could feel the other shudder and grabbed his hips, pulling them firmly against his own.

  
Lance was breathing hard and Keith had to admit he wasn’t doing much better, especially because he knew what came after this. Lance’s hands roamed upward as their lips moved together. He threaded fingers through Keith’s thick hair and Keith wanted to melt under the attention. He loved having his hair played with; it was one of the main reasons he kept it long. Lance didn’t miss the way his breath stuttered at the feeling of blunt nails slightly scraping his scalp and could feel a hesitant grip on his hair and an even more hesitant tug; The thought alone was tantalizing. Keith pulled back, eyes never leaving Lance’s

  
“Harder.” he breathed.

  
“What?”

  
“As hard as you can.”

  
“Are you sure?”

  
“Please.”

  
Lance bit his lip, eyes darting across Keith’s face. Keith could feel the grip become more firm before a tickling, burning pain flooded his senses. Breath hitching, his face scrunched and hips stuttered forward, grinding slightly on to Lance’s thigh. The grip loosened and he opened his eyes to see Lance’s huge eyes and red face.

  
“You really like that, huh?” he whispered.

  
Keith couldn’t find it in himself to respond properly. Instead, he moaned softly and fell into Lance’s neck, nuzzling it. Lance muttered something, but he didn’t process it; his head was too full of want. He wanted Lance, he wanted to see him fall apart. He wanted to do so much to him, but he had a plan, and he needed to stick to it. Even if that was becoming harder.

  
Almost absently, he started kissing his neck which quickly turned into wet, open mouth kisses. A primal part of him bubbled up and left suggestions of possessiveness. It left him wanting to bite down, to suck and bruise and mark Lance so everyone knew. So that when Lance happened by a mirror, he would see the marks and be reminded of what he let Keith do.

  
But he knew he couldn’t. Someday, but not today. Still, he couldn’t help but nip gently at the other’s skin. He pulled down Lance’s collar, exposing his collarbone to soft kisses and licks. With each touch, Lance was squirming, grinding up against a thigh that had somehow made its way between his legs. Keith could feel the hardness against him and little choked moans that his soulmate was so desperately trying to hold back. Lance was ready to fall apart which meant that it was time for Keith’s plan to move on. But first, Keith need to get something out of his system. Starting from his collarbone, Keith licked a path up the column of Lance’s neck; slowly and pressed the ball in his mouth against skin. Lance’s breath stuttered as much as his hips. He pulled back, resting his forehead on Lance’s temple; not wanted to lose any contact.

  
“I wanna blow you,” he whispered into the other’s ear. Keith punctuated his statement with a sharp press of his thigh against Lance’s groin.

  
“F-fuck-” Lance seemed helpless to do anything but grind back.

  
“I wanna feel your cock in my mouth.” Keith kissed the junction between ear and jaw, muttering into skin.

  
“K-Keith- Ha- Here?” Lance’s voice was tinted with hesitance and uncertainty and Keith decided right then that he didn’t like it. He pulled back to look into Lances eyes. It was his beautiful blues that Keith had immediately been infatuated with. How they seemed to be the perfect color and shade to show off his flawless, brown skin. He was like a perfect color pallet and Keith wanted to color his world with it.

  
“No one will see you, Blue.” He didn’t understand how he was able to say the name so easily, but the way Lance’s eyes lit up took away any building regrets and replaced them with a soft smile. “Okay?”

  
Lance bit his lip but nodded all the same as his grip on both Keith’s hair and his shirt tightened. “Okay.”

  
Keith kissed the other’s cheek and then his lips before dropping to his knees. He was no longer sure what part of the plan he was on, but he knew that it was the final step. He wanted to take his time, to nuzzle and mouth the bulge of Lance’s pants and work him up even more, but they were on a time limit.

  
He ran his hands up the sides of Lance’s thighs before coming to rest on his hips. A few of his fingers dipped below the waistband as the others began undoing the button and zipper. Keith looked up and found Lance with lidded eyes and his hand covering his mouth. Hesitation pushed to the back of his mind, Keith pulled back the loosed waistband and freed Lance’s cock from his boxers.

  
Keith had never really considered calling a dick pretty before, but looking at the cut and shapely cock that was hovering in his face, somehow the word came to mind. His hands went to hips to steady himself as he leaned in and kissed the tip. Above him, Lance smothered a gasp in his hand and kept his other firmly in Keith’s hair.

  
Moving his hand from Lance’s hip, Keith gently used his thumb to pull back the boy’s cock and put it neatly on display. He started from the base and dragged the tip of his tongue all the way up to were his thumb rested. He did it again, this time using the flat of his tongue and his piercing. The door rattled softly as Lance’s head tilted back to rest on it, his eyes screwed shut. Keith pulled the tip to his mouth, circling it slowly, getting the entire head soaked with his saliva. Once he decided it was slick enough, he braced a hand on Lance’s hip, the other held the base of his dick. His lips wrapped around the head and he slowly sunk his mouth down on Lance’s cock.

  
Lance was doing a great job of keeping himself quite, which was a shame. Understandable, and mostly preferred, but a shame. His soulmate was normally so talkative, he was certain that the noises Keith could draw out of him would be beautiful. The thought was pushed to the front of his head each time Lance’s breath would hitch, each time Keith could feel his muscles twitch and especially when the hand in his hair would tighten and pull. He tried to keep his mind on what he was doing, only allowing himself small moans around Lance’s cock; he was starting to wonder who was being teased more.

  
“K-Keith- Ha, I-” Lance tried, but Keith ignored him. He’d sucked off enough guys to know when someone was about to come and Lance was no exception. Lance’s hand tightened in his hair, but Keith just took his cock deeper, swallowing and working his tongue against the underside.

  
“You don- Fu...” Lance came with his hand sealed around his mouth and his body doubling over, pulling Keith’s hair as hard as he could. Keith pulled back, mouth full of come, hand still slowly stroking Lance through the last remnants of his orgasm. He swallowed then leaned forward to completely clean off Lance’s cock, tongue working gently around the slowly softening and oversensitive head.

  
“Nng, holy shit,” Lance breathed. Keith pulled away and watched as Lance slid down the door to finally sit. He was still breathing hard and so was Keith. He was painfully hard in his jeans and he still had the texture and taste of come stuck to the roof of his mouth. Lance looked over at him, stared at his face then traveled down. His soulmate licked his lips before looking back up.

  
Keith was shaking his head before Lance even got a word out.

  
“I’ll be fine, no worries.”

  
“What if I want to?” Lance countered. Keith raised an eyebrow before pulling out his phone. He had actually gotten Lance off fairly fast, they still had time if they were quick. Not only that, but it would be nearly impossible for him to calm down in time; he didn’t anticipate getting so turned on by just sucking dick. He supposed that was just another perk of having a soulmate.

  
“Switch me places,” he told Lance who quickly scrambled to reverse their positions. With his back against the door, Keith felt trapped as Lance crawled to him. He couldn’t describe the feeling as bad, especially not when his dick was throbbing at the thought.

  
Lance palmed him through his jeans and Keith couldn’t help but wince; he hadn’t touched himself at all while he got off Lance and the sudden pressure was nearly painful. Lance traced the outline of his dick, nearly stoking it through fabric.

  
“Is it weird that I really like the feeling of your dick in your jeans?” Lance asked. Keith’s eyes opened, he didn’t notice he had closed them, and he watched Lance's face, he seemed extremely... curious?

  
“N-no...”

  
“It feels so... big and hard.” The look of curiosity never left his face as he slowly traced and rubbed up against Keith. It was absolute torture to his overly hard cock and it didn’t help that Lance was dirty talking and didn’t even realize what he was doing.

  
“Lance, please...”

  
“Please what?” Lance’s eyes went up to his, hand evenly pressing into his groin as Keith rolled his hip forward. It wasn’t uncommon for doms to ask their subs to elaborate on what they want, but Lance wasn’t a dom. He wasn’t intentionally torturing Keith just to get a reaction.

  
Keith narrowed his eyes, about to demand that Lance stick his hand down his pants, but the other man smirked. Lance smirked and the fucker knew exactly what he was doing; he was trying to dom Keith and god if that didn’t make his dick pulse. Lance must’ve felt it because his smirk became a shit eating grin as he continued to softly rub against Keith’s groin.

  
He leaned in close, kissing Keith softly before muttering against his lips,“Tell me what you want.”

  
“Touch me.”

  
“Where?”

  
Keith groaned as Lance managed to nearly wrap his hand around Keith’s cock through his jeans. He was going to have to get back at him for this. Keith connected their lips, kissing Lance hard, pushing his still come flavored tongue into Lance’s mouth. Lance didn’t complain, just licked into Keith’s mouth with just as much enthusiasm. Keith used it as a distraction, undoing his pants and quickly pulling out his dick, sighing as it was finally set free. He broke the kiss and presented his cock for Lance, holding the tip back so he could see his full length. Keith planned on getting back in full at some other point, but this would have to do, for now...

  
“Touch me here, please, Master,” he whispered in his best _fuck me_ voice.

  
Lance leaned back, face completely red as he stared, “Fuck dude...” was all he said before reaching out and finally, _finally_ , jerking Keith off. Keith could’ve screamed from the relief, but kept his mouth clamped shut. Only allowing muted moans to slip through. Lance kissed him again, pushing his tongue into his mouth, rubbing again’s Keith’s and playing with his piercing. Keith couldn’t help but buck up as Lance’s tongue circled around the little ball. He was close, hell, he had been close. All at once, he felt himself go over the edge and with little warning, he smashed Lance’s lips onto his and moaned into his mouth as he spilled into his hand.

  
They stayed like that for a bit, Lance with a hand covered in Keith’s come and Keith refusing to let Lance move his face from his; insisting that they keep their faces smashed together. Keith finally released the other once his breathing slowed and was faced with the issue of Lance’s hand. They both stared at it, both knowing that something had to be done, but unsure what the right answer was.

  
Hesitantly, Lance raised his hand to his mouth, poked out his tongue, and licked the smallest amount of come off his hand. His face scrunched up as if he was just force fed lemons. Keith couldn’t help but laugh at the honest reaction.

  
“What? Don’t like the taste?” he asked through his laughter.

  
“The taste is fine, it just has the consistency of snot!” Lance held his hand out away from him and Keith broke out into another fit. “Seriously, how did you keep it down? Do you like it?”

  
“Not particularly. I do it partly because people like it, and partly because it’s easier.” Keith admitted.

  
“Easier?”

  
“Well, yeah, If I hadn’t swallowed, then we would have two hands of come.”

  
Lance’s face screwed up at that concept and he shook his head.

  
“Thank you for your service,” he said seriously; Keith snorted. “But for real, what do we do?”

  
Keith shrugged and grabbed Lance’s hand, pulling it back to his crotch. With his free hand, he pull up the fabric of his boxers and used it to wipe off Lance’s hand.

  
“Keith, no, gross!” Lance complained. He pulled back his hand and stared at it regretfully, then back to the wet stain on Keith’s boxers, “You’re just going to walk around the rest of the day like that?”

  
“It’ll dry.”

  
“Oh, gross, dude!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god! I had my senior art show the other weekend and I think it went pretty well! Which is why these chapters have been coming slow~ I'm also coming up on the end of my senior year of college and my school does comprehensive exams so I might be dead in a couple of weeks. lol I'd like to say that I'll get a chapter out before I graduate, but I'm not 100 on that happening.  
> Anyway, thanks for sticking with my inconsistent ass~


	11. Chapter 11: Tension

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith panics about Shiro, but ends up having fun in the end.

Fighting with Shiro hadn't really changed. Sure, he favored an arm and danced around his bad side, but he was still fast and his sheer mass was more than enough to intimidate. But Keith was faster, unconventional, and strategic. His high school coach had told him that he fought like he was fighting for someone like he was ready to sacrifice something to win. Probably because Keith knew exactly how much he could take before he went down and what's a knock to the gut if you gained the upper hand?

But it was still hard fighting Shiro. He had long since had his concern for Shiro’s condition beat out of him after the man decked him in the headgear so hard he fell flat on his face. Shiro wasn't going to hold back so neither was he.

Keith watched his movements in between dodging and it was clear that Shiro was trying to compensate for his slower arm. He would lead with his left - fast, powerful, a distraction - and come in after with his right. A good man and a good friend wouldn’t take advantage of Shiro’s disability. But Keith was still smarting after that hit to the head and wasn’t having any luck getting the upper hand. All he had to do was get Shiro to do it again.

Keith got in close and played like he was going to go for the other man’s right, giving his left side plenty of space. Sure enough, Shiro went for the left and Keith took it in the shoulder. He stumbled back some, but his eyes never left Shiro’s right arm as it reared up. Shiro grunted with effort as his gloved fist begin to shoot forward; Keith took advantage of its slower momentum, grabbed it and kicked Shiro’s feet out from under him.

The man went down hard with a _thud_ and before he could push himself off the mat, Keith followed through and attempted to pin the larger man. He bit down on his mouthguard, air leaving his nose in bursts as he stretched over Shiro’s body. Vaguely, he could hear Lance cheering from his seat on the floor. His victory didn’t last long and Shiro’s strength advantage was made glaringly clear as he quickly flipped their positions. Keith winced as his body smacked the mat, eyes closing on impact.  

Keith opened his eyes to see Shiro reaching over him to pin his arms. The man was basically straddling him, his face sweaty and hair sticking to his forehead in places as he panted through his nose. They made eye contact and Keith let his head fall back to the mat, eyes closing and teeth clenching at semi-soft plastic. God, was that a wonderful sight. Keith swore that he didn’t use to sexualize their sparring matches so much; he blamed Lance and his sudden association of sex with people he cared about. Shiro seemed to take his limpness as submission and released him, leaning back on his haunches. Keith opened his eyes in time to see the other man slick back the hair that hung in his face, his headgear sitting on the ground next to him. Most of the hair stuck, the rest fell back into place. He removed his mouthguard and gave Keith a cocky smile.

“You used my arm,” he teased.

Keith spit his mouthguard out, the plastic rolling off his face and to the mat beside him.

“You didn’t give me much of a choice.”

Shiro chuckled and lifted the collar of his shirt to wipe the sweat off his face. The small, windowed view of his stomach left Keith feeling breathless. He had Shiro, straddling him, sweating, panting, and Keith’s mind easily supplied the idea of Shiro throwing off his shirt. His thoughts were interrupted before they could go much further by a wolf whistle that caused Shiro to jump slightly.

“Shiro, you lookin’ _fiiiiiine_!” Lance belted out from the sidelines. Keith watched Shiro's already red face turned even redder as he let out a surprised scoff before breaking into a full on laugh. That was somehow worse then Shiro pinning him. The man’s laugh rang clear like bells, his obvious embarrassment pitching up his normally deep voice. When it died down, he stood and offered a hand to Keith.

“Alright, let's shower.”

Shiro. Communal Showers. Newly resurfaced sexualization of Shiro. _Bad Idea._

“I'll just shower at my room,” Keith said as he took Shiro's hand and allowed the man to pull him up.

“You sure?” Shiro questioned.

“Yeah, I left my shampoo at my place and you know that locker room soap fries my hair,” Keith replied as he picked up his mouth guard from the mat. He eyed it carefully and picked off a hair. Gross.

Shiro thankfully let him go at that. Keith and Lance still followed him into the locker room for Keith's bag and from there they parted ways.

 

Keith left Lance on his bed when he went to shower, bringing his bag with him. The shower started with a sputtered hiss and he hosted his gym bag onto the sink counter. From his bag, he pulled out his cheap shampoo, considered it a moment before sighing and putting it in his shower. Lying to Shiro always felt bad, it was as if the man somehow knew, or at least knew something else was up. _But it was for the best_ , Keith rationalized as he climbed into his shower. The best for his relationship with Shiro and for his soulmate. He needed to calm the fuck down. He had a soulmate now, he couldn’t just be lusting over random people. But it wasn’t random people, it was Shiro. _Just ignore it; it’ll go away like before._

...

_Did it really ever go away?_

_..._

_Fuck._

 

Once Keith was dried off he wrapped the towel around his waist, walked out of the bathroom and to his closet to find something comfortable. The thought that Lance was there -on his bed, playing on his phone- while he only had a towel on was vaguely there, but mostly he just wanted to get dressed, maybe play some games or watch a movie.

“Hey, Keith?” Lance asked as he pulled himself to the edge of the bed.

“What’s up?” Keith replied as he pulled out one of his larger shirts and set to finding a suitable pair of pajama pants.

“Come over here,” Keith turned and found that Lance had moved from laying in the corner to sitting on the edge of the bed, his phone nowhere to be found.

“Uh, sure...” hesitantly, he set his shirt down and crossed the short distance to where Lance sat. He stood in front of the other’s knees, but Lance seemed to think that was too far. He was grabbed by the hips and pulled to stand between the other’s legs, Lance’s nose lightly brushing against Keith's stomach.

“L-Lance?” Keith stuttered, hands instinctively bracing himself on the other’s shoulders.

Lance didn't respond save for a small hum as he gently nuzzled into Keith only looking up after placing a soft kiss above his navel.

“You're really pretty, you know?”

Yes, Keith  _did_ know, actually, or at least, that's what people would tell him as they tried to make meaning out of whatever desperate act they were about to commit. But the way Lance said it, all breathy, smiling up at him; it was like an arrow through his heart. He could feel his face heat up even as he looked away.

“What do you want?” Keith asked, internally wincing at how harsh the words came out. Lance didn't seem to take notice.

“Hmm, how 'bout you?” Keith could feel the hands in his hips tighten as Lance spoke. “Because I could really do with having you closer.” Lance nuzzled again, his voice leaving ghosts of breath on Keith's stomach.

“Yeah?” was all Keith could get out.

“Hmhm. Seeing you fight like that was a massive turn on. I would’ve sucked your dick in the showers if we stayed,” Keith didn’t know if Lance was just dirty talking, but he didn’t care. The image was there and made itself very comfortable in the heat of his groin.

“You did seem distracted...” Keith muttered.

“ _You_ seem pretty distracted, too.” Lance teased, fingers tracing the dip of his hip. He was becoming increasingly aware of Lance’s circles and how his finger kept snagging the towel. Keith had to take a steadying breath before talking again.

“It’ll fall off, the towel, I mean, if you keep doing that.”

Lance looked up at him, a smile playing at his lips and blush on his cheeks.

“Maybe I didn’t want it there in the first place,” he said coyly.

“I... Are you sure?”

Lance blinked as if confused then rolled his eyes.

“I’ve seen your dick, Keith. I’ve had it in my mouth multiple times at this point.” Lance wasn’t wrong; since the time at the library they’ve taken every chance they could get. Most of them in Keith’s room, it wasn’t anything new. But somehow the intimacy seemed way stronger than before. Maybe it was because he was naked and Lance wasn’t, maybe because of how straightforward Lance was being, maybe because he had just been contemplating his relationship with Shiro but whatever it was it was having a very obvious effect on him.

“You okay?” Lance asked, face no longer coy.

“I- Yeah, I'm fine.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, I'm just a bit tired from practice.”

Lance hummed and nuzzled into Keith's stomach again, “Don't worry, I'll do the work.”

 

Keith wasn't sure how it happened, but suddenly he didn't have his towel and he was rutting against Lance's still clothed leg; panting and kissing Lance in-between desperate breaths. He was incredibly turned on which was his excuse for the noise he made when Lance stopped them suddenly.

“K-Keith-” Lance’s fingers gently brushed against Keith’s face.

“Wh- ah- at?” Keith barely got out.

“I wanna go farther,”

Keith hummed and started to take Lance's shirt off. When it was off, he started going for the other's pants. Lance stopped him again, grabbing at Keith’s wrists.

“N-No, I wanna have sex with you.”

Keith froze and jerked his head to make eye contact with his soulmate. He was staring right back at him, face flushed and biting his lip.

“Sex?” Keith dumbly asked. Lance only nodded, “Okay, but it's gonna be a lot of prep. It's been a while since I've had something in my ass.”

“I can take it-” Keith cut him off with a head shake.

“Lance, no. Trust me it's not that easy.”

“No- I mean, I've been practicing.”

“Practice- Lance, what?” He stared wide-eyed down at him quickly processing the implications of what Lance had said along with a whole gallery of images that came to mind. Lance only smiled like the tease he was.

“You sure? You sure you're..  open enough?” Keith asked as the image of Lance fingering open his own ass inserted itself into his mind.

“How about you find out?”

Lance was open alright. As he laid in the bed, face down; ass up, Keith could very clearly see the pretty blue of the butt plug that was keeping him nice and... adjusted.

“How long have you had that?” Keith asked as Lance slowly ran his hand over his own ass, pulling at the flesh so that Keith could better see how Lance’s asshole fluttered around the toy.

“I got it not long after I turned eighteen. It was one of my first adult purchases.” Lance told him as his fingers ran across the toy slightly catching the edge of the silicone base. “Do you like it?”

“Y-yeah, it suits you- I mean-!”

Lance laughed, “What’s got you acting like such a virgin?” he teased.

Keith bristled. _Virgin?!_

Without warning, Keith grabbed the base of Lance’s plug and pulled. Not enough for it to come out, just enough for Lance to feel the stretch. Any words Lance had planned on saying were quickly replaced by a needy gasp followed by an even needier whine. The toy was plunged back in and suddenly Lance found himself being fucked with his butt plug.

“You were right, Lance. You’re pretty open. You could take my dick pretty easy.”

“J-Jesus, Keith!”

“Hmm? What is it, Lance? You’re moaning so much, I can’t understand you.”

“F-Fuck!”

“God, you’re sounding like such a _virgin_ \- Oh, wait.” Keith grinned something evil at the way Lance started pushing back against the toy, begging for-

“ _More, Keith_! _Touch me!”_

Keith finally pulled out the plug and tossed it to the side, losing it in the unmade bed. Lance groaned and pushed his ass back as he buried his face in one of Keith’s pillows.

“You sure you don’t mind me not using a condom?”

“ _Yes!_ ”

“Where’d you put the lube?”

Lance flailed his arm out wildly as he blindly felt around for the bottle. When he did find it, he did his best to throw it at Keith.

Keith tsk’d, but popped open the bottle with a muttered, “Gonna have to teach you manners.” He considered Lance a moment; ass up, face hidden in pillows and blankets. _That won’t do._

“Turn over,” he says as he pushes at Lance’s ass. The other man complies and plops down on his back. With Lance’s body laid out in front of him, on full display, Keith surges forward. Grabbing the other’s thighs, he easily slips inside and the feeling of it -the intimacy- forces him to freeze. He’s fucked people, that’s been well established, but Lance was nothing like the others. In so many ways, Lance hadn’t been like anyone else. Sex had never meant anything to Keith and suddenly it meant so much. It represented so much. _Lance meant so much._

His breath came out shaky as he took in Lance’s flushed face, stuttered breath, hair stuck to his face.

 

_Shiro._

 

He was going to fuck Lance so hard that he would forget about Shiro.

 

Lance held tight to him as Keith gave him everything. Hard thrusts reaching deep inside as he pulled just as hard at Keith’s hair.

“Do you know how pretty you looked pinned down?” Lance asked between pants. Keith didn’t respond, only stuttered in his thrusts to grind deep into Lance.

“Ah- Shiro doesn’t even need to try to-”

Keith’s pace picked up. Hard and fast, Lance squirmed, nails digging into Keith’s shoulders.

“To- to-” Lance choked as Keith started pumping Lance in time to his thrusts. His dick leaked heavily allowing Keith to easily get Lance arching his back. He released Keith shoulders to make grabby hands up at Keith with a pouty lip. Lance looked absolutely delicious and Keith wanted nothing more than to consume him. He dropped down, lips locking with Lance’s as the other man death gripped his head. It was sloppy and uncoordinated and ended up being less kiss and more close heavy breathing, but Keith didn’t notice. He only felt the way Lance held onto him and the way Lance’s hips tried to keep pace before ultimately just wrapping around his waist.

Lance came first with his dick smooshed between their bodies and his mouth latching onto Keith’s to swallow his screams. It pushed Keith over and he tried to pull out, but Lance kept him firmly in place. He came inside Lance as Lance moaned obscenely. They stayed like that for a moment, mostly because Lance wouldn’t let go. But finally, Keith managed to pry him off and flopped down beside the other.

Lance almost immediately curled into Keith’s side. Keith chuckled softly and wrapped his arms around Lance the best he could.

“You okay?” He asked as gently as he could.

“Yeah,” Lance’s voice was breathy as he spoke, “That was much better than doing it by myself.” he let out a half laugh as he snuggled closer.

“You’re gonna have to go take a shower to get that cum out of your ass,” Keith said simply.

“Keith! Oh my god!” Lance squeaked and grabbed the nearest pillow to cover his face, knocking Keith in the face with it as he did so.

“Do you wanna keep it there? Geeze, you don’t like cum any other time but when I-”

“Jesus Keith, stop! I’ll shower! I’ll shower!” he stood and whipped Keith in the chest with the pillow. “The hell kinda pillow talk is th-” he froze, a look of horror overtaking his features. “Oh god! It’s leaking!” he squealed as he ran for the bathroom.

“Do you want the butt plug?” Keith called to the open bathroom door.

The door slammed and Keith cackled.

 

After the shower, the two of them climbed into bed and Keith let Lance’s arms wrap around him as he laid his head on the man’s chest. They stayed like that for a while, Keith didn’t know how long. With Lance gently playing with his hair, a soft buzzing of contentment filled his head. The Shiro Thoughts were gone and all Keith could think about was Lance. Slowly, a conversation he had with his moms came drifting into his consciousness.

“Hey Lance?” he asked, voice soft.

“Hmm?” Lance paused in his hair petting.

“Where are you from?”

“You don’t know?” Lance leaned forward to look Keith in the face, forcing Keith to readjust so they were laying next to each other.

Keith played with the corner of a pillow, “You never told me and I never asked, I guess.”

Lance chuckled softly, “I grew up here, actually. This college town is my hometown.”

“Really? Then why live in the dorms?” Keith asked.

“College rules. Freshmen have to stay in the dorms. Next year I’ll be living with my parents. I’ll miss Hunk though and I feel bad that he’ll have to find a new roommate.” Lance sighed, “But it’s far cheaper than living on campus.”

Keith tried another question, “What...  What’s your family like?”

“It’s big, I think. At least, most people think it is. I’m one of six kids.” he replies with a shrug.

“That sounds... hectic.” Keith winced. He’d been in foster homes that had that many kids and it was never a good time.

Lance laughed, “Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t. Some have moved out. Like my oldest sister. She’s got two kids of her own.” he paused, “Although, they live down the street and are always over anyway.”

“And... you’re Cuban, right?”

“Yup, although I wasn’t born when my family moved over.” Lance started playing with Keith’s hair, making a small braid out of a few locks.

“Have you ever been there before?” Keith asked, enjoying the feeling of his hair being played with.

“Oh yeah, every summer and for Christmas. Most of my family is still in Varadero.”

They went quite a moment as Lance moved on to a new lock of hair before Keith spoke again.

“What do you wanna do with your business major?” he asked.

Lance struggled to hold back his laughter before giving up and just giving into his uncontrollable laughter. Keith turned red, suddenly self-conscious that he asked something stupid.

“What?” he demanded, some defensive irritation seeping into his voice.

“Sorry, sorry, I’m sorry-” he took a deep breath, fighting back the last of his giggles, “It’s just, why so many questions? It’s not like you.”

“I- uh... My mom was asking about you and I didn’t have any answers, so...”

“Yeah, my family did the same thing. It’s for my dad’s flower shop, by the way.”

“Flower shop?” Keith asked, sitting up a little.

“Mm-hm, I’m gonna inherit it and I wanna make sure I can take care of it,” Lance said with a proud smile.

“That’s... really cool, Lance,” he said trying not to think of the implications Lance’s dream held for Keith’s own future.

“You think I’m cool?” Lance teased.

“I don’t think that’s what I-”

“Keith thinks I’m cool!”

Keith hit him with a pillow which only made Lance laugh harder.

“What about you?” Lance asked as he repositioned himself to sit cross-legged in front of Keith...

“Me? You already know that I’m adopted.” Keith shrugged.

“Yeah, but what do you wanna do? You don’t have a major, right?” he grabbed one of Keith’s pillows and held it tight against himself.

Keith sighed and used his own, once weaponized, pillow to prop up his head.

“I don’t really know, to be honest.”

“Nothing comes to mind?”

“I mean, I used to think I would be a mechanic. I’m pretty good with bikes and cars.” Memories of grease and the metallic smell of welding in Ms. Lilian’s garage with her eldest daughter came to him easily. Those were some of the best times of his childhood.

“Bikes?”

“Motorcycles. Bicycles too, I guess.” he sighed, “But then why am I in college? I could’ve just gone to a trade school.”

Lance nodded, “Yeah, I see your point. What does Shiro think?”

“He thinks I should go into art.”

“We do have some pretty good design programs.”

Keith shrugged, “I just figured I would use this year to try out things and declare next year.”

“Yeah, might as well.” Lance hummed, “Hey, so about Shiro...”

“Shiro?” Keith heart skipped a beat and then started hammering in his ribcage. Had he said something during sex and not realized it? Did Lance know something?

“Yeah. Like- Okay, I’m gonna ask this and I want you to know that I’m not upset or anything, I’m just genuinely curious.” Lance reassured.

“Oh...kay?” Keith was not reassured.

“Okay, so do you still having feelings for Shiro?”

Keith’s heart stopped. Just stopped. He was dead now.“Lance, I’ve never had feel-” Keith’s ghost attempted to... lie? To Lance?

“You almost punched me that time on Allura’s porch at the mere suggestion that you might.” Lance’s face conveyed very well just how done he was with Keith.

“I- Alright. I used to have a massive crush on Shiro.” Keith admitted with a grimace.

“Used to?” Lance pressed.

Keith went silent as he weighed his options. On on hand, if he tells the truth then Keith might not feel so terrible about the whole thing. On the other hand, Lance might get upset. Even if he doesn’t say he’s upset...

Keith took a deep breath, eyes closing as he forced himself to voice his secret.“Still...do...”

“Keith-”

“Lance I’m so sorry-”

“It’s not a big deal.” Lance’s voice was gentle, soft, sincere and Keith couldn’t handle it.

“What? How is it not!?” Keith sat up as he, well, yelled at his soulmate.

“It just isn’t.” His soulmate’s voice didn’t waver, he didn’t get mad at Keith’s outburst.

Keith can’t understand why, _how,_ Lance isn’t upset. He has every right to be mad and yet- “I _like_ another man. I lust after him and this isn’t a big deal!?”

“It’s not. Sure, I wish you told me earlier, but I know why you didn’t.”

Keith flopped back on his bed and rubbed at his face, barely suppressing a scream.

“But you’re my soulmate, I’m not supposed to have feelings for anyone but you.”

Lance shrugged, “I mean, sure, but I’ve had crushes on people who weren't you.”

“But-”

“ _And_ ,” Lance leaned forward and grabbed at one of Keith’s hands. He held it gently like he was holding some small, precious animal. “It doesn’t matter anyway what you’re supposed to be or feel. I don’t care and that’s all that should matter.”

“ _But-_ ”

“Shush! You’re not going to convince me to be mad at you.”

Keith tried a few more times, but Lance just wasn’t having it. Each time Keith tried to make a point, Lance would flop his body down on top of Keith’s eventually ending with Lance trying to cocoon Keith with his body. It was irritating at first, but it eventually got a laugh out of him.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god, it has been too long! Sorry, I was really busy with real life, I graduated college, got my first real job, and moved out of my parent's house! It's been a busy last few months! But, I'm really excited for what's coming up so I hope I'm able to write it out faster. This chapter was really hard to write and I'm not completely happy with it, but I think the next one should be better =w=;;
> 
> Also, thanks for all your comments, I'm sorry I don't respond, but I read all of them and they make me really happy!

**Author's Note:**

> I'm terrible at replying to comments because I feel like i can't express my internal screaming that someone likes something I did enough to tell me. So if you comment, just imagining excited screaming as your reply.
> 
> Also, check me out on tumblr @ http://spud-of-love.tumblr.com. I'm mainly an artist and sometimes I draw stuff for this fic. I also post updates there as well!


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